Heartbeat and Bone
by UnicornStarFighter
Summary: (rating subject to change) It would be a stretch to say that Rose Weasley's relationship with Scorpius Malfoy was normal by any means, but that didn't mean that they weren't friends. Even with their unusual friendship, though, Rose never saw their seventh year happening the way it did. Without prior preparation for the mess that's coming her way, how is she going to handle it?
1. Prologue

The first time Rose Weasley saw Scorpius Malfoy she was eleven years old, standing on the platform at King's Cross where she was to board the Hogwarts Express. Her father pointed him out, the boy with the light blond hair and silver eyes, and told her that she was supposed to beat him in everything. Though he had softened on it somewhat, Ron's disdain for the Malfoys was nothing new, and Rose thought little of his remark. What was slightly more unusual was what happened when her mother pulled her aside a few moments later.

"See what he's like. Don't judge too quickly," Hermione said. Her expression was even, but Rose saw something flicker in her eyes as she spoke.

Rose nodded, stood on her toes so that she could kiss Hermione's cheek, and reached for the handle of her trunk. "The train leaves in five minutes."

Hermione smiled. "It most certainly does. Say goodbye to your brother, Rosie."

Rose held out her arms. Hugo rolled his eyes, but he hugged her a moment later. She squeezed him tightly and then ruffled his hair. "Bye, pest."

"Bye, dork," he said, sticking his tongue out at her.

Ron chuckled. "It's going to be a while before you see each other again. Be nice."

"We are," Rose said. "Bye, Dad."

Ron opened his arms so that Rose could hug him. "We'll see you at Christmas, and make sure you write us."

"I will," Rose said. "I promise."

"Good," Ron said. "Bye, Rosie."

Rose smiled. She hugged each of her family members one more time, and then made her way down the train, trunk and owl cage in hand.

"Rose!" She stopped and turned to see Victoire standing there in a t-shirt and shorts, a wide smile on her face and her Head Girl badge pinned to her shirt.

"Hi, Vic," Rose said, glancing up and down the platform. "I need to find a compartment. Do you—"

"That's exactly why I wanted your attention," Victoire said. "I'm going to be in the Heads' carriage with my friends, but Al has claimed a compartment very close to ours, and James and company are just across the corridor. I'm fairly sure Louis and Max have a compartment close by as well. I can show you where Al is, if you'd like."

"If you wouldn't mind," Rose said, biting her lip.

Victoire's smile widened. "Sure thing."

She took Aella's cage from Rose and led the redheaded girl down the length of the train to the front of it. As they walked, Victoire greeted various students, and she only stopped when they came to a compartment only three doors down from the door emblazoned with a giant H and the Hogwarts crest. Victoire slid the door open and led Rose inside. Al sat there with two dark-haired, grey-eyed twins, a girl with dark hair and a round face, and a sandy-haired boy that Rose didn't recognize. She smiled at the familiar faces, and gave Victoire a quick hug in thanks after they stowed her trunk and Aella's cage on the luggage rack. Victoire nodded to everyone else in the compartment and then let herself out into the corridor as Rose sat down beside the dark-haired girl.

"Rose!" the girl said.

"Hi, Alice," Rose said, smiling. "Hi, Al, Lorcan, Lysander."

"Hey, Rose," Al said. He gestured to the sandy-haired boy. "This is Trent Alexander."

"You're Vic's friend Jade's brother, right?" Rose asked. He nodded. "She's mentioned you a few times. I'm Rose."

Trent smiled. "It's nice to meet you."

"Likewise," Rose said. She glanced across the compartment to where the twins sat. "What?"

They were grinning at her, their smiles identical aside from the fact that the boy on the left had two dimples while the boy on the right only had one.

"Long time, no see, Weasley," said the boy on the left.

Rose rolled her eyes. "I know, Lorcan, but to be fair, you weren't at dinner at Uncle Harry's last week."

"Mum and Dad were busy," Lorcan said

"Not that it really matters," Lysander said. "We're going to Hogwarts!"

"And it's fantastic," Alice said.

Rose nodded and looked out the window as the train began to move. "You can say that again."

After the food trolley came past a while later, James and a few others came into the compartment and began a rousing game of Exploding Snap. Rose alternated between playing and looking out the window as they sped through the countryside. The sky grew progressively darker as they journeyed, and when it came time to disembark from the train, a multitude of stars were gleaming overhead. Rose followed Al down the platform to where a large man stood, his smile visible even beneath his beard.

"Another Weasley an' a Potter," he said. "An' a Longbottom! Welcome t' Hogwarts."

"Hi, Hagrid," Rose said, accepting his hug.

Al and Alice did likewise, and they waited patiently beside him for the rest of the first-years to join the group so they could leave for the lake. As they boarded the boats down at the shoreline, she caught a glimpse of Scorpius Malfoy getting into a boat by himself. Lorcan and Lysander followed him on a moment later, the darkness hiding their faces. She lost sight of them as the boats began to move, but all thoughts of the blond-haired boy faded from her mind at the sight of Hogwarts.

She'd been there before, of course, for the anniversary speeches for the Battle of Hogwarts and other things, but she had never seen the castle quite as it appeared in that moment. The windows glowed with light, casting their reflection on the water, and the towers rose into the sky to join the stars. As the boats touched onto the shore, she blinked rapidly, and once they were given the signal, she followed Al out of the boat. The grandeur of the castle was enough to stun the first-years into silence, and they filed into a line as they made their way up the stairs.

They were greeted in the entrance hall by Neville, who broke his Assistant Headmaster facade long enough to wink at Rose and her friends before leading all of the first-years into a room off of the Great Hall. They stood there quietly for a few minutes before they were organized into an alphabetized line. Rose found herself sandwiched between Ellis Warrington, an intimidating looking girl with blonde hair and piercing brown eyes, and Olivia Webb, a petite brown-haired girl with grey eyes. They waited for a few moments, and then Neville led them out into the Great Hall.

Rose searched the crowd for those she knew, and she smiled to herself when she saw the familiar red hair of Louis, Molly, and Lucy, the dark hair of James, Roxy, and Fred, the blonde hair of Dom and Vic, and the familiar faces of the Finnigan twins and all of Victoire's friends. Feeling considerably less nervous, she faced the front of the line again.

Trent and the two girls at the front were sorted into Gryffindor, and each hurried to the table as soon as the Sorting Hat shouted out their house. An olive-skinned boy with curly dark hair was the next to be sorted into Gryffindor, followed by a blonde-haired girl a while later. Only three names after her came Alice, and Rose held her breath as her friend scampered up to the stool so that her father could place the hat on her head.

After a moment, the rip at the brim opened, and the hat shouted "GRYFFINDOR!"

Rose saw a smile flash across Neville's face before he called the next person to the stool. It was the blond-haired Malfoy, who fixed everyone with a defiant stare as he sat down. Neville lowered the hat onto his head. It had barely touched his hair before the rip opened.

"GRYFFINDOR!"

Rose's eyes widened as Scorpius got off the stool and went to the Gryffindor table. Everyone else stared at him as he sat down, and he crossed his arms and stared back. Rose watched him, barely noticing when another girl was sorted into Gryffindor as well. She only turned to face the front again when Neville called Al's name. Rose crossed her fingers as he sat down, and she let out a sigh of relief to match the expression on his face when the hat shouted "GRYFFINDOR!"

A few more were sorted before Neville reached the Scamander twins. They were sorted into Gryffindor with ease, and then only four people stood between Rose and the hat.

She felt herself grow stiffer and stiffer as the number of people in front of her dwindled, and when Neville called her name, it took all of her self-control to force herself to walk up to the stool. He offered her a reassuring smile before she turned around and sat down. Within moments, she felt the weight of the hat on her head.

"Hm," a voice said quietly. "Granger and Weasley. This is a new combination. You'd do well in Ravenclaw, you know, with your mother's brains, but... I think we'd better make it GRYFFINDOR!"

The hat shouted the last word, and Rose felt the tension drain from her shoulders as Neville lifted the hat off of her head. She ran down to join Al and her friends at the table, only to pause when she saw who he was sitting beside. Scorpius Malfoy met her gaze without hesitation, and after a moment, she nodded to him. He nodded in response, and with that, she sat down.

* * *

The autumn of second year found her sitting in the common room with Alice and their two other friends, Serena Ladley, a blonde-haired, hazel-eyed girl, and Helena Averly, a girl with beautiful dark brown hair and piercing blue eyes. Rose had her head bent over her Herbology textbook as Alice, Serena, and Helena watched Al and Scorpius battling it out at a game of wizard's chess. Much to Rose's dismay, Al had been quick to befriend the young Malfoy after the Sorting, and it hadn't taken Scorpius long to begin to tease her relentlessly, though always with a smile on his face.

Rose didn't even bother to look up from her textbook as she said, "That's a dumb move."

Scorpius looked at her. She could feel his gaze on her. "Really? What would you do?"

"Well, if you must know, I'd move my bishop, not my knight," Rose said.

She didn't have to be looking at his face to know that he rolled his eyes as he moved his knight up and to the left. Shaking her head, she turned the page in her book. A moment later, Al moved his queen, and the knight was taken out.

"Checkmate," Al said.

"I told you that you should have moved your bishop," Rose murmured. She looked up just in time to see Scorpius make a face at Al.

He turned to look at her a moment later. "Go back to your book, Red."

"Gladly," she said. "And don't call me that."

"Whatever you say, Red," Scorpius said, grinning. He turned to Al. "Want to go down to the pitch and toss the Quaffle around for a while?"

Al shrugged. "Might as well, if we want to be good enough to make the team next year. See you at dinner, Rose."

"Yeah," Rose said, her attention back on her Herbology textbook.

She heard the boys get up and leave, and a moment later, Serena sighed. "Scorpius is lovely, don't you think?"

Alice shrugged. "I've got more of an eye for Max, myself."

"What do you think, Rose?" Serena asked.

Rose looked up. "Scorpius Malfoy lives to make my life miserable, so I'm going to say no to that one, and I've known Max practically since I was a baby, so no."

"Knowing someone since you were little doesn't mean you can't fall in love with them," Alice said. "Haven't Victoire and Teddy known each other forever?"

"Since she was born, practically," Rose said. "I don't see how it matters."

"Well, they're proof," Serena said. "You can fall in love with someone you've known for ages."

"I'm with Rose," Helena said. "If you've known someone that long and you see them as a sibling, it would be kind of weird to fancy them, don't you think?"

"Exactly," Rose said.

Serena shrugged. "Whatever makes you happy. I still think Scorpius is lovely."

"I just wish he'd stop coming over to my house," Rose said, turning the page of her textbook.

"He's been at your house?" Helena asked. "Why?"

"Well, he and Al are best friends, obviously, and sometimes we have Uncle Harry and the family over for dinner, which sometimes involves Al bringing people along," Rose said, making a face. "Unfortunately, this means I saw Scorpius more often than I would have liked over the summer."

Alice winced. "Sorry, Rose."

"It's whatever," Rose said. "I'm hungry. Anyone fancy a trip to the kitchens?"

"I'm in," Serena said.

"Me too," Alice said.

They all looked at Helena. She shrugged. "Why not?"

* * *

Third year, Rose found herself partnered with the one person in the class she would have preferred to avoid for their Care of Magical Creatures project.

Scorpius dropped down into the seat beside her in the library five minutes before they were scheduled to meet. She was intent on her textbook, flipping through it to determine the best way to care for the Diricrawl they were meant to be looking after for the next few weeks. Every so often, she would make a note of something on the parchment to the right of the textbook, unconcerned with Scorpius's presence.

Scorpius cleared his throat. When she didn't look up, he spoke. "Rose." Nothing. "Weasley." She still didn't respond. "Red."

That caught her attention. She looked up and met his gaze, her eyes narrowing. "What?"

"What can I do to help?" he asked.

She fixed him with an even stare. Despite the fact that he got on her nerves and seemed to live to drive her mad, she couldn't ignore the fact that he had the second-highest average in their year (After her, of course). She fiddled with her quill for a moment before nodding. "The section on magical birds is over there. Go see if you can find the guide to Diricrawls. I tried, and Madam Vellan said it's there, but it seems to be missing."

"Magical birds?" Scorpius said, grinning. "You'll have to introduce me to one. I hope she's attractive." When Rose rolled her eyes, his smile widened. "Only joking. Just give me a minute."

She shook her head as he got up and walked away, turning her attention back to her notes. He came back no more than forty-five seconds later, a book in his hand. He set it down on the table in front of her. "The _Introductory Guide to Diricrawls_."

"How did you find it that fast?" she asked skeptically.

"Have you ever heard of something called a summoning charm?" he asked.

She dropped her head to the table. "I'm an idiot."

"Yeah, you are, but don't worry," he said. "I've got enough brains for the both of us." He pulled a piece of parchment and a quill out of his bag as she glared at him. It didn't take long for them to fall into a peaceful silence broken only by the sounds of their quills scratching against the parchment and pages turning.

By the end of an hour, they each had multiple sheets of notes in front of them. Rose put hers in her bag and paused before she stood up. "You actually do work and take it seriously, even though you're smart enough to pass without doing any of this, so... Why?"

Scorpius looked at her, and for once, his eyes were serious. "My dad wasn't too thrilled when he found out I was placed in Gryffindor. He loves me, don't get me wrong, and his perceptions of the houses have certainly changed since he was at school, but he still doesn't like Gryffindor and he wanted me to end up in Slytherin. I know he probably just wants me to prove everyone wrong about his house, but I think a Malfoy ending up in Slytherin again would just prove them right about something else."

Rose nodded. "My dad's the same way. Not about me ending up in Gryffindor, he was thrilled about that, but about Slytherin. He knows that it's not the same as it was when he was here, but old habits die hard and he still doesn't have any fondness for the house. I'm convinced that most of the reason why Al was frightened about the possibility of ending up in Slytherin was because Uncle Ron has never been particularly fond of it. Uncle Harry couldn't care less, but Uncle Ron's opinion matters to Al."

"As if Al would ever end up in Slytherin," Scorpius said, rolling his eyes. "He's a Gryffindor through and through."

"I know that, and you know that, but he wasn't quite sure then," Rose said. "I don't know if he is now either."

"If he isn't, he's an idiot," Scorpius said.

"Well, I'm the smart one in the family, so that's entirely possible," Rose said. She stood up and shouldered her bag. "See you, Scorpius."

He nodded. "Yeah, see you."

The next time she passed him in the corridor, they smiled at one another.

* * *

The summer following fourth year was an interesting one. Her parents organized a trip to the south of France with Harry and Ginny, and all of the kids were allowed to invite their friends along. As a result, Rose would be spending two weeks on the beach with Helena, Alice, and Serena, and Scorpius as well, thanks to Al.

They arrived in Marseilles on a sunny Tuesday afternoon, and were immediately greeted by Aunt Fleur's sister Gabrielle and her husband Caleb. Gabrielle kissed Ron on both cheeks, causing him to blush bright red and Hermione to shake her head and mutter "Veelas." Caleb and Gabrielle's two daughters, Antonia and Elizabeth, were there for a little while before they took a Portkey to London to spend two weeks visiting with Victoire and her family.

Gabrielle showed Rose to the room that she would be sharing with Serena. Helena and Alice were across the hall.

"This is going to be fun," Serena said as they unpacked their clothes.

Rose shrugged. "We'll see about that."

"Don't write the whole trip off before we even start doing anything," Serena said. "Come on, get out a swimsuit and let's go down to the beach. The water looks great. Who knows, maybe you'll finally get a tan this trip."

Rose laughed. "Yeah right. I'm going to turn into a mess of freckles, you know that as well as I do."

"And some guy will find them really cute and sweep you off your feet and you'll ride off into the sunset," Serena said. She grinned when Rose rolled her eyes. "I'm just kidding."

"I know," Rose said. "I just can't believe you guys are still playing that card."

"What, you don't want a white knight to come and rescue you?" Serena asked.

Rose shook her head. "As if. I can take care of myself."

"I don't doubt that," Serena said. She smiled a moment later. "Come on, let's get changed and then get Alice and Helena and go down to the beach."

They left the house once everyone had changed and followed the path down to the beach. As soon as the warm sand touched Rose's toes, she smiled. They laid their towels out on a thoughtfully constructed wooden platform that rose a few inches above the sand, leaving room on either side for Alice and Helena to lay down once they arrived. Rose lay down on the towel, her face to the sun, and closed her eyes. After a bit of sunbathing, Alice spoke.

"This is so nice. Thanks for inviting us, Rose."

"As if I'd come all the way down here without my best friends," Rose said. "This is lovely though, you're right."

"I'm going to have such a great tan by the time we leave," Serena said. "I think I could just stay in this spot forever."

Helena chuckled. "That might not be the best idea ever, Rena. You'd probably look like a lobster by the end of it."

"Yeah, that probably wouldn't be so great," Serena said. "I take it back. Still, I think I could stay here until dinner."

"I'm all for that idea," Rose said. "Maybe I'll look vaguely human once we get home instead of being ridiculously pale to the point of possible vampirism."

"Spend enough time in the sun, and even you can get a little bit of color," Alice said.

"I appreciated the vote of confidence, Ali," Rose said.

"I try," Alice said.

"I'm sure you do," Rose said. "I'm just glad that Gabrielle agreed to let us stay here."

"She's your aunt's sister, right?" Serena asked.

"Yeah," Rose said. "She's Vic's aunt. She's a bit younger than Aunt Fleur though, so they weren't the closest growing up, and with them living here, they don't visit often, but she met Uncle Ron and Uncle Harry during the Triwizard Tournament, and ever since then, she's always loved seeing them. Mum hated it when she was younger, or so Dad says, but now she just thinks it's a bit silly."

"Why did she hate it?" Serena asked.

Helena laughed. "You know how guys react when they see Veela, Rena. Even a part-Veela can have quite the effect on them. I can't blame your mum for disliking it, Rose."

"Oh, she didn't just dislike it," Rose said. "She absolutely hated it. After a while though, she started to think it was funny how Dad just can't seem to shake their influence, even after knowing Aunt Fleur for all these years. He's a lot better with her than he used to be, or so I've been told, but he still gets flustered sometimes. The whole family finds it hilarious."

"I can imagine," Alice said. "I'll bet George finds it especially so."

"He would, if he weren't almost as bad," Rose said. "Teddy and Uncle Bill seem to be the only ones who are immune to it, and that's probably because the people they're in love with are part Veela."

"How are Teddy and Vic doing, anyway?" Helena asked. "I remember you saying that they got engaged, but not much more than that."

Rose smiled. "They're doing really well. They're both Aurors, they're living in a flat together, they have a cat named Minerva, much to Professor McGonagall's chagrin, and like you said, they got engaged back in May. Apparently he was going to wait to propose until the day that he gave her the promise ring that she has, but there was some mention of a near-death experience on a mission and deciding that they shouldn't wait, so it happened. I honestly think that it would have happened sooner, but she was insistent that she wouldn't be engaged until she was twenty, so he waited."

"They've got such a sweet story," Serena said. "I wish I had something like that."

"That's what you think," Rose said. "It was awful for them during the winter holidays of our first year. They were going to tell everyone once Vic was done with school, but then James saw them kissing and told Uncle Harry, and it spread after that, so they had to spend Christmas being pelted with questions from everyone. If it weren't for Uncle Bill stepping in and telling everyone to leave them alone, I really do think they would have left the party and gone back to their flat so that they wouldn't have to deal with it. I shouldn't have anything that bad, provided I don't date a Slytherin. If I did, I think my dad's head might explode. Speaking of relationships, what's up with you and Declan, Ali?"

Alice groaned. "Oh, Merlin, I don't know. The boy's an idiot. I thought he was going to ask me out before we left, but he chickened out at the last second and asked me if I was excited about the trip. Aidan said he would talk to him, but I don't know how much good that's going to do. You guys are so lucky that you don't have boy troubles."

"Oh yes, so lucky," Serena said. "Instead of an attractive Irish boy a year ahead who can be a bit thick sometimes, we get a bunch of pubescent boys with the maturity level of five year olds. It's the best thing."

"What she said," Helena said.

Rose made a face. "I think I'll stick to focusing on school for now. We've got O.W.L.s this year, and I'd like to be as focused as possible. I need to do well if I want to get into the Healer program."

"I'll stick to Herbology," Alice said. "It seems to run in the family, and Dad knows some people who can get me a position at St. Mungo's working with the potions department, so I'm set. I just need to keep my Potions and Herbology grades top-notch."

"You won't have any trouble with that," Serena said. "You Longbottoms are born to work with plants."

"Yeah, except that Dad can't brew a potion to save his life," Alice said. "I don't know who I got it from."

"Your grandparents, maybe?" Helena asked. "I'm going to be an Auror, if I can get into the program."

"Well, I'm going to join Rose on the Healer track," Serena said. "It's going to be difficult, but I want to help people."

"That's really the best reason for doing it," Rose said. "You have to care, because if you care, you'll work hard."

"Exactly," Alice said.

They fell silent after that, the sun warm on their faces. Rose was just beginning to drift off to sleep when someone grabbed her, picked her up, and sprinted down the beach. Her sunglasses flew off as the person carrying her ran, and she had just enough time to scream "SCORPIUS MALFOY!" before she hit the water.

When she surfaced, dripping wet, she glared at him. He held his hands up and grinned at her. "Okay, I know it wasn't nice, but you have to admit, it's funny."

She continued to glare at him, but he just smiled at her, and after a while she felt her control slipping as she began to smile and, once his smile widened, laugh. He had waded out and stood chest deep in the water. She walked up to him, smiling, and he held his arms out for a hug. She made to hug him, and at the last second, jumped on his back and shoved him underwater. When he surfaced, he brushed his hair out of his eyes and chuckled.

"I guess I deserved that, huh?"

She nodded. "Yeah, you did."

The girls and Al joined them a few moments later, and they spent the rest of the day splashing in the surf.

* * *

Alice groaned and shoved her notes aside. "I can't do this anymore. It's driving me mad."

Helena nodded, closing her Transfiguration textbook. "I can feel the beginnings of a migraine. How about we go for a walk?"

"I'm in," Serena said. "Some sun will do me good, I think. I feel like I've gone as pale as a vampire."

Rose glanced at the blonde girl, whose tan complexion glowed even under the dim lighting of the library. "I don't think you need to be worry about being pale, Rena. You're not the redhead here."

"Be that as it may, I'd like to get some sun," Serena said.

"I think Declan said that he and the boys were going to be down by the lake," Alice said. "We could walk down there, if you want."

Serena raised her eyebrows. "Oh, Declan said?" When Alice ducked her head, Serena grinned. "I'm only kidding. You two have been dating since October. I just like messing with you. That sounds great."

"I'm coming," Helena said. "I can't take much more of this."

"You coming, Rose?" Alice asked.

Rose shook her head. "I need to go over my Defense notes again, and compare them with our textbook to make sure that they're accurate."

"As if they wouldn't be," Alice said. "You sure?"

"Yeah," Rose said. "I need to do this, or I'll drive myself crazy thinking about it later. Go, have fun. I'll come join you in a bit."

"All right," Alice said. "Don't stress yourself out too much, okay?"

Rose nodded. "I'll do my best."

The three other girls put their books in their bags and left the library. Rose pushed her book away from her, spreading her things out across the newly-vacated table. She bent her head over her Defense Against the Dark Arts notes and began to edit them with the help of a quill and her wand.

She didn't know how long it had been since she started working when she groaned and rested her head on the table, shoving her notes and book away from her in the process. Her head still on the table, she reached back to the bun on the back of her head, which had just about fallen out completely. She pulled the hair tie loose and allowed her hair to fall around her face as she sighed. After a few moments, someone spoke.

"Red?"

She groaned again. "Not now, Scorpius. I had patrol last night and I'm dead."

"You sure?" he asked. "Don't tell me I snuck food in the library for nothing."

She sat up. "You _what?"_

"Okay, maybe I charmed Madam Vellan into letting me bring it in here, but nobody needs to know that," Scorpius said. "The point is, you need to take a break before you go completely insane, and there's food ready to be eaten here."

She took the pastry that he held out to her and bit into it. "You're the best, but don't tell anyone I said that, and definitely don't let it go to your head."

He grinned. "Don't worry. I won't. I've got Quidditch practice _and _patrol tonight, so you can take pity on me tomorrow."

"Fat chance."

"I figured as much."

* * *

The end of sixth year came faster than Rose ever thought it would. It felt as though she was packing up her trunk as soon as the year started, ready to go home.

She shut the lid of her trunk and looked around the dormitory. It had been an interesting year. Victoire and Teddy had announced they would be getting married that July (it couldn't have been any sooner, due to their desire for a long engagement), she was finally of age, and—most importantly, though she wouldn't actually admit that—Scorpius Malfoy had been proven that he might be worthy of Head Boy-ship. He may have driven her mad, but there was no denying he was good at his job. He led the prefects, even those older than him, with an incredible ease, and she didn't think it would be too forward to say that they had actually formed a serious friendship over the course of their many patrols together that year.

She was pondering their newfound closeness when Helena leaned around the doorframe to look at her. "You ready to go?"

Rose glanced around the room. "Yeah, I think."

"Good," Helena said. "Everyone else is downstairs."

Rose followed her out of the dormitory and down to the common room, where they joined their friends. Al led the way out of the common room and down to the entrance hall, and they split themselves up between carriages so that they could go down to the station. The train ride back to King's Cross was filled with laughter on all sides, as well as a series of practical jokes courtesy of Lorcan and Lysander. Towards the end of the journey, Rose found herself staring out the window just as she had on their first trip to Hogwarts.

"What is it?"

She looked up to see Scorpius. The rest of their compartment had gone over to the Heads' carriage to see Louis and his girlfriend Quinn, who had been Head Girl that year, and it had been silent up until Scorpius spoke.

"I dunno," she said, shrugging. "It just feels odd, you know? We've only got one more year."

He sat down beside her. "Yeah, I know. It's strange. It feels like it was yesterday that I was looking at that imperious redheaded first year, and now look at you. Still redheaded, but not quite as arrogant as initially assumed."

"Scorpius Malfoy admitting I'm not arrogant?" Rose asked, though she grinned at him to let him know that she was joking. "What's happening to the world?"

He rolled his eyes, but smiled anyway. "You could at least accept a compliment when I give it to you instead of turning it into something other than what it is."

"But where's the fun in that?" she asked.

He shrugged and stood up. "I don't know." When she didn't move, he sighed. "I'm going to head over to the Heads' carriage. Would you care to walk with me?"

She looked over at him to see that he was holding out his hand. After a moment, she put her hand in his and allowed him to help her to her feet. "I guess I probably should see Louis on his last Hogwarts train ride, huh?"

"Probably."

They left the compartment and started down the corridor. She paused after they'd passed into the next carriage. "Wait, shouldn't you be with Shannon or something?"

He shrugged. "I broke up with her last week."

"Scorpius, that's the fifth girl this year!"

"She's done with school. There was no point in us staying together."

"You're ridiculous."

"And that's why I have you to look out for me."

"Yeah, I'll bet."

Neither of them seemed to notice that he was still holding her hand.


	2. Chapter 1

The sixth of July, 2023, should have been just like every other day in the middle of the summer holidays, spent out on the Quidditch pitch at Potter Manor with the cousins or swimming in the lake with Serena, Helena, and Alice. Instead, Rose was standing in the hallway at Shell Cottage as her family members and a number of people that she both did and did not recognize hurried around the house, fetching and carrying and yelling all the while. Her hair had been smoothed into loose, shiny curls, rather than the wavy mass that normally surrounded her head, and she wore a simple pale blue dress with a sweetheart neckline and a hem that reached her knees. Around her neck was a necklace that her parents had given her when she turned sixteen, and on her feet were a pair of plain grey heels.

She had just gone outside to see if she could go down to the beach to avoid the mess and help her father and uncles set up the chairs and tent when someone tapped her on the shoulder. She turned around to see Teddy. He wore black dress robes, and his turquoise hair was slightly messy, as though he'd been running his fingers through it. He smiled weakly at her, and she had to hold back a laugh at how pitiful he looked.

"I got kicked out of the flat," he said. "Apparently I was driving Sam mad with my pacing. Can you do me a favor, Rosie?"

"That depends on what it is," Rose said. "You'll have to forgive me for saying this, but you look like hell, Teddy."

"I'm just nervous," Teddy said, smiling again. "I mean, I've been waiting for this, but I can't help but be nervous. Does that make sense?"

"You're getting married," Rose said. "Of course it makes sense. But remember, Vic loves you. We've all known this was coming practically since I was born. Breathe, Teddy. What's this favor that you need me to do for you?"

"Oh, right," Teddy said. He fumbled in his pockets for a moment and then passed her two small boxes. "Give those to Tori, if you wouldn't mind. One is from me, and the other is from my grandmother. She'll know what they are."

"Got it," Rose said. "Now, go back to your flat and tell Sam I sent you, and that it's too crazy over here to have a nervous groom running around, and that as your best man, it's his job to manage you, not ours, okay?"

"Okay," Teddy said. He hugged her quickly. "You're the best, Rosie."

She grinned. "I try. Go!"

He tugged on one of her curls and then Disapparated. She held the boxes securely in her hands as she entered the house. The noise level rose dramatically when she went inside, but it was quieter than it had been earlier. The only shouting she heard was that of Alexa, Victoire's best friend and maid of honor, attempting to restore some sort of order to the members of the wedding party and everyone else who was in the house. Rose walked down the hall until she reached Victoire's old bedroom and proceeded to open the door. Inside, Victoire stood in front of the mirror as her mother fussed with her hair (It was already perfectly curled in a style similar to Rose's, but Rose suspected that Fleur just wanted to have something to do). Victoire wore a long white gown with silver detailing, and she turned her head to look as Rose entered.

"Rose, what are you doing here?" she asked. Her blue eyes had been perfectly made up, and they seemed even more vibrant than normal as Rose approached her. "Is everything okay?"

"Well, Teddy seems like he's having a bit of a panic attack, but other than that, everything's fine," Rose said. She held out the boxes. "He wanted me to give these to you. He said that one was from him, and the other was from Andromeda."

Victoire smiled. "Well, give them here, then." Rose handed her the first, larger box. Victoire opened it to reveal a beautiful silver necklace with a delicate sapphire inlay. She lifted it out of the box and gaped at it. "I can't believe Andromeda... Rosie, held me put this on, would you?"

Rose nodded. She handed Victoire the other box and then did up the clasp of the necklace. "It's beautiful, Vic."

"It was Andromeda's, from a long time ago," Victoire said, her smile widening. "I used to covet it when I was little. I can't believe she remembered." She opened the other box and chuckled. "Well, that's fitting, I suppose." She held up a tiny silver charm in the shape of a bell. "Wedding bells. The little idiot." She fastened it onto her bracelet, which already bore a number of charms, and shook her head. "He's ridiculous. Someone remind me why I'm marrying him again?"

"Because you love him?" Rose said.

"And there it is," Victoire said. She looked at Rose in the mirror and smiled. "Thank you for bringing these to me, Rosie."

"They say you should always help the bride on her wedding day, but I think they forget about the completely frazzled groom," Rose said.

Victoire made a face. "He would be the one to get all worked up about this. Aren't I supposed to be the one who's panicking?"

Rose shrugged. "In convention, maybe, but since when have we ever been conventional?"

"That's what I thought," Victoire said. "How's everything going out there?"

"Mass hysteria, mostly," Rose said. "Alexa's doing her best to get everyone inside under control, and from what I saw for the few seconds that I was outside, the tent is up and they're working on the chairs and everything else now."

"Good," Victoire said. "That's good." She exhaled loudly. "Wow."

"Are you okay?" Rose asked. "You're starting to look a bit like Teddy did."

"It's just hard to believe it's actually happening," Victoire said. "We've been together for what, seven years now? I knew it was coming, but I kind of feel like I'm just dreaming this."

Rose grinned. "It's going to be fine, Vic. You two will go out there and say your vows and we'll all cry about how sweet it is, and then everything will go back to normal except for the fact that you'll have another ring on your finger." She rested her hand on Victoire's shoulder. "I'm going to go find Alice and Lily. Remember to breathe, and it's all going to be fine."

"I know," Victoire said. "Thanks, Rosie."

"Anytime," Rose said.

She smiled at her cousin once more and left the room. The noise level in the house had dropped, and when she went downstairs, Alexa was directing traffic to the appropriate locations. Rose grinned and went into the living room. Alice and Lily sat on the couch by the window, Lily wearing a dress the same color as Rose's. They let their conversation drop as Rose approached them and smiled at her instead.

"Hey there, Lil, Alice," Rose said, taking a seat on the end of the couch. "How's it been down here?"

"A madhouse," Lily said. She brushed a lock of red hair away from her brown eyes and smiled again. "How's Vic doing?"

"She's good," Rose said. "A bit nervous, but good. Better than Teddy, that's for sure."

"What's wrong with Teddy?" Alice asked.

Rose laughed. "Oh, he got kicked out of the flat by Sam because he was pacing too much. I told him to go back and tell Sam that we didn't have room for a panicking groom over here."

Lily shook her head. "Hopefully he'll make it to the ceremony without spontaneously combusting."

Rose glanced out the window to the area where the tent had been set up. Bill, Ron, Harry, and a few others had begun to levitate chairs inside to form rows that flanked the aisle. "As nervous as I think he is, I think the anticipation is going to overpower the nerves without any question. He wants this. They both do." She looked at Lily. "How much are you looking forward to having him as an official part of the family?"

Lily pulled her hair over her shoulder and began to braid a section of it. "It'll be good. I mean, he's practically family already, but having it be official will be fantastic. To be perfectly honest, I do think that Mum and Dad would have adopted him if it weren't for the fact that it would have been a bit weird for him to marry Vic then."

"People marry their cousins all the time, and Teddy and Vic aren't even blood relatives," Alice said.

"I know, but it would still be odd," Lily said. "Anyway, the only people who marry their cousins are people who are so caught up in blood purity that they'd rather face inbreeding than the possibility of a drop of non-magical blood entering their line. I'd hazard a guess that Teddy isn't one of those people, but I could be wrong."

"Besides, Ali, it's not like you need to worry about marrying your cousin, miss I've-been-in-a-serious-relationship-since-fifth-year," Rose said. "How's Declan doing, anyway? Is he coming to the wedding?"

Alice blushed. "Unless something has changed within the last hour, he's coming, and he's fine. He's finally starting to be able to do something other than brew potions at work, so he's thrilled about that."

"So he hasn't come to the conclusion that being a Healer requires too much grunt work and quit?" Rose asked. "That's good to hear."

"No, he's stuck it out so far," Alice said. "It helps that Monica is his boss."

"I'd imagine," Rose said. "Having connections is always useful, even if you're only using them for the sake of having a boss who isn't completely awful to work with."

"He said she's tough, but she's not unreasonable," Alice said. "I'd imagine that you have to be that way in order to be a Healer."

Rose shrugged. "Well, I suppose I'm going to find out soon enough."

"I'm surprised you didn't go the Auror route. Your family seems to have a fondness for that career path," Alice said. "I mean, look at you, Lily."

Lily nodded. "Can you really blame us, though? Vic's always been great at Defense, so it was only natural that it would be something she would want to pursue, Roxy's always enjoyed dueling, and I'm Harry Potter's daughter. It's in our blood."

"I'm still a bit surprised Roxy didn't partner with Fred at the joke shop, honestly," Rose said. "I always thought she'd end up working on the more practical side of things, but I thought she'd end up there nonetheless."

"If there's one thing I've learned about Roxy, it's that there's absolutely no point in trying to predict what she's going to do," Lily said. "Remember that time that she came home with bright blue hair?"

Rose laughed. "Yeah, and all that Uncle George said to her was 'You couldn't have at least dyed it scarlet?'"

"Gryffindor pride is very important, Rosie."

Rose turned around. She let out a small scream and jumped up to hug the person who stood there. "Uncle Charlie!"

Charlie grinned and hugged her back. "Hey there."

"I thought you weren't supposed to arrive until right before the ceremony started," Lily said, jumping up to hug him as well.

"I wasn't, but Lianna convinced her mother to let us leave a few hours earlier than we were originally meant to, so here I am," Charlie said. He chuckled and shook his head. "She's really taking one for the team coming with me to this. I'm going to owe her a thousand times over for going above and beyond best friend duty. How are Vic and Teddy doing?"

"Good," Rose said. "Nervous, but good."

Charlie laughed. "I can imagine. Remind me to never get married, Rosie. I think I'd go mad trying to deal with everything that goes along with it."

"I think you'd manage," Lily said. "You manage to deal with everything, Uncle Charlie."

"Merlin only knows how," Charlie said.

"Have you got any new dragons at work?" Lily asked.

"Someone thought it'd be a great idea to try to sneak an Antipodean Opaleye into the country, so we've been a bit busy dealing with that until we can get it sent home to New Zealand," Charlie said. "We've named her Molly."

"No," Lily said, her eyes widening. "You didn't."

Charlie smiled wickedly. "Oh, we did."

Rose glanced at Alice and nodded. As Charlie regaled Lily with tales of Molly the dragon, Rose went outside to the tent where the ceremony and reception were meant to take place. Ron was straightening one of the chairs when she entered, and he smiled at her.

"Hey, Rosie," he said. "Is everything all right?"

"Yeah," she said. "I just didn't realize how much work it took to organize a wedding."

Ron smiled wryly. "I must admit, if it hadn't been for your mother, I probably would have opted out of this one. I helped all of my brothers, and Harry. She insisted that was a perfect reason for me to help with this, seeing as I already know how to do it, so here I am."

"Is everything almost done in here?" Rose asked.

Ron nodded. "Nearly. The guests are due to start arriving in about twenty minutes, so we're just putting the finishing touches on everything. I'd get Lily in a few minutes and get ready to start showing everyone to their seats, all right?"

"Got it," Rose said. She hugged her father quickly and then left the tent.

The house was nearly empty when she went back inside, save for the few family members that were there and the bridesmaids. Alexa smiled at Rose as she came to a stop in the hallway. The maid of honor's black hair was done up into a beautiful updo, and she wore a silver floor-length dress and heels, just like the other bridesmaids.

"How's the Healer prep going, Rose?"

Rose made a face. "I've been studying everything I can get my hands on, but I'm not sure if it's going to be enough."

"That may be the case, but remember, Monica's scaled the ladder at St. Mungo's quite quickly, and you'll have Nick on your side too," Alexa said. "And if what Jade's heard from Maddie is true, you're going to be more than ready to take the exam. Apparently she knows everything that goes on in your family."

"She's best friends with Lily, so that hardly surprises me," Rose said. "They're practically joined at the hip when we're at school. It's a bit strange, really."

"We were pretty much the same," Alexa said. "Except there were five of us, not two."

"To be fair, Lex, I wasn't really part of the bunch until the end of fifth year," Jade said. "It was more like the four of you were joined at the hip and then Vic realized I wasn't so bad and then I joined in too."

Alexa waved her hand in a dismissive gesture. "Old news, we were pretty much joined at the hip for all of sixth and seventh year, so that's good enough."

"Well, that's true," Jade said.

Rose grinned. "Hogwarts was definitely fun my first year."

Alexa looked at Jade and laughed. "We did our best. I'm glad to hear that it paid off. Congrats on Head Girl, by the way."

"How did you find out?" Rose asked. "I only told the girls, Lil, and Al."

"Lily and Al both told Maddie, Maddie told Jade, Jade told us," Alexa said.

"As Alexa said, Maddie knows anything of importance when it comes to your family," Jade said, grinning. "And you can't really expect Al not to tell her these things. He's so besotted it's a bit ridiculous, really. I'm waiting to see if they'll break Teddy and Vic's record for getting engaged."

"They won't," Rose said. "I know Al, and he's said he wants to have dated the person for at least five years before he even thinks about marrying them. It's not like he has the same background with Maddie as Teddy has with Vic. They've known each other forever. Al only really started talking to Maddie when he was a fourth year, and that was only really when he was with Trent and she was there too."

"Fair enough," Jade said. "It'll still be interesting to see how long it takes."

"I agree," Rose said. "He really does like her a lot, that's definitely true."

"What about you?" Alexa asked, grinning. "Do you have anyone right now?"

Rose shook her head. "Merlin, no. I'm just trying to focus on school. If the right person comes along, maybe, but at the moment I just want to make it through this year with grades that are so good that I'm as close to guaranteed a spot in the Healer program as a person can get."

"Hey, if you need any tips, there are certainly enough of us around to help you out," Alexa said. "Feel free to write me whenever, okay? I'm sure Monica would say the same."

Rose smiled. "Thanks."

Alexa nodded. "Anytime." She glanced at the clock on the wall. "The guests will start getting here in a couple minutes. I'd find Lily, if I were you."

"That's what I was just about to do," Rose said. "Tell Vic I said good luck."

"We will," Jade said.

Rose went back into the living room. Alice and Lily were still sitting there, though Charlie had disappeared.

Lily stood up when she saw Rose. "Is it time?"

"Just about," Rose said. "Are you good to handle Floo duty?"

"I've got it," Lily said. "Dom's around here somewhere, she's going to direct traffic from the Apparation point to you."

"All right," Rose said. "We're going to keep this as organized as possible, so send them along as soon as they get here, okay?"

"Will do," Lily said. "See you out there."

"Yeah," Rose said. "Alice, are you going to go sit down?"

"I'm heading to the Apparation point," Alice said. "I'm meeting Declan."

"Of course," Rose said. "Well, see you when he gets here."

Alice nodded. "Yeah."

Rose went out to the entrance to the tent. A few minutes later, Al moved to stand on the other side of the entrance. He glanced at her as he straightened his dress robes.

"Are we having fun yet?"

She looked at him and rolled her eyes. "Al, the guy who is practically your brother is getting married today. You could at least pretend that you're having a good time."

Al made a face. "I'd have a better time if I didn't have to wear these damn things."

"What, dress robes aren't your style?" Rose asked.

"Robes in general aren't really my style," Al said. "I prefer my normal clothes, thank you."

"I take great pleasure from the fact that wizards have adopted Muggle clothing as normal everyday wear," Rose said. "It's fantastic, given what happened twenty-some years ago."

"Things change," Al said. He groaned. "I really wish I didn't have to do—Hello, Oliver, Katie."

"Are you making noise about not wanting to have to help with your cousin's wedding?" Katie asked. "Albus Potter, I thought you'd have better manners than that."

"I do believe my parents did too," Al said, grinning. "Let me show you to your seats."

He escorted them inside the tent as Rose waited for the next guests to arrive. She smiled when she saw who was walking towards her, and was immediately gathered in a hug.

"Hi, Uncle Neville, Aunt Hannah, Cole," she said, once she was released from Neville and Hannah's grasp. "How are you?"

"Better now that I've seen you," Neville said, smiling. "I hope everything has been going well this summer?"

"As well as can be expected with this year being N.E.W.T.s," Rose said. "Please, let me show you where to sit."

She led them inside the tent as Neville spoke. "Congratulations on making Head Girl, Rose."

Rose grinned. "Of course you knew about that."

"Knew about it?" Neville asked. "I recommended you for the position."

"I'd have made him do it if he hadn't," Hannah said. "I can't think of anyone better to have that position, Rose."

"Thank you," Rose said, smiling. "I'm flattered to have it, honestly. Skylar would have been a fantastic candidate, and Whitney isn't half-bad either."

"No fondness for Miranda, then?" Neville asked.

"I wouldn't say that I don't like her," Rose said. "She's perfectly nice, I just don't think she has the organizational skills required by a Head."

"We felt the same," Neville said. "You'll do an excellent job."

"I'm going to try to, anyway," Rose said. "Here are your seats."

She was hugged once more by Neville and Hannah before they sat down, and when she returned outside, Al wasn't there. He joined her a few moments later, running his hand through his hair.

"I think I might die by the end of this."

She laughed. "It's not that bad, Al."

"You're not wearing dress robes," he said.

She glanced at him. "Maybe not, but I am wearing heels, and let me tell you, I don't think you'd enjoy it very much."

"Probably not," he said. "Regardless, I'm suffering in dress robes in this absolutely horrid heat, and you don't have to deal with the pain that comes with wearing multiple layers."

"You're such a poor thing," Rose said. "Hello, Mr. and Mrs. Edwards."

They continued to lead guests into the tent for the better part of an hour, and once they checked the last one off the list that Al had tucked inside of his pocket, they made their way to the family's seats at the front of the tent. Teddy and Vic had done away with separating everyone based on who they were there for, stating that their family and friends were one and the same so it seemed pointless to break everyone up. Instead, their relatives had taken the seats towards the front, leaving everyone else to fill in behind. Rose waved at Alice before she took her seat beside Hugo, who was tugging at the collar of his dress robes.

"You all seem to really hate those," Rose said, glancing at him.

"That's because we do," Hugo said. "They're so hot, and stiff. It's a nightmare, honestly."

"Well, fortunately I never have to find out," Rose said. She fell silent a moment later as Teddy and his groomsmen filed out onto the raised platform in front of them, followed closely by none other than the Minister for Magic himself, Kingsley Shacklebolt. His presence was unsurprising to Rose, who had heard the stories about how following Voldemort's downfall, Kingsley had insisted on officiating the wedding ceremonies of every Weasley who had yet to get married, as well as a few of their friends.

As soon as they had all taken their places on the platform, a song began to play. Alexa led the way down the aisle, with Molly, Monica, and Jade following behind her. They took up their positions on the platform, and then the music changed. Rose, as well as a number of other guests, gasped at the sight of Victoire, who had her hand hooked through Bill's elbow. There was a wide smile on her face as they made their way down the aisle, and Bill kissed her forehead before he passed her hand to Teddy. Teddy mouthed something to her as she took her place opposite him, and she smiled.

Rose paid little attention to the ceremony until they reached the vows, at which point she sat up in her chair and trained her gaze on her cousin and the boy she had known since she was born.

Victoire spoke first. "Teddy, I've known you for as long as I can remember, and quite honestly even longer still. You've made me laugh until I cried, and even though you can be a right overprotective git sometimes, you've been there when it counted. You've always supported me and been the best friend I could ask for—sorry, Lexa—and I couldn't ask for a better person to spend the rest of my life with. I promise that no matter what happens and no matter how ridiculous we may be sometimes, I'll always be there for you, I'll always help you, I'll always call you out when you're being stupid, and I'll always love you, to the moon and back."

Teddy blinked at her for a moment before a smile spread across his face. "Tori, I remember the first day I saw you. Harry and Ginny wanted to see their niece, and I didn't want to go, because I thought you'd be boring, and to be perfectly honest, you sort of were for a while there. I had absolutely no idea that the tiny little girl lying in Fleur's arms was going to have me wrapped around her finger before she could even talk, much less that I'd end up marrying her. I know I can be an idiot sometimes, and I know that we're going to have our disagreements, but I also know that we're capable of getting through anything. I promise you that regardless of where I go, what I do, what choices we make, or where life takes us, I'm yours, and I love you, to the moon and back."

She smiled again as Kingsley called for the rings. Alexa passed one to Victoire, Sam one to Teddy, and the couple exchanged them. Kingsley waved his wand above their heads, and a shower of sparks fell over them. They turned to face their guests, their hands joined, and Rose wiped a tear from her eye before she began to clap along with everyone else.

"If you would all rise," Teddy said, his voice carrying over the applause. The guests did as he asked, and he, along with Bill, Charlie, Percy, George, Ron, and Harry, waved their wands. The chairs flew to the sides of the tent as the walls fell away and tables floated out into the areas along the outer edge of the floor. He grinned. "We took a bit of inspiration from my lovely wife's parents, so if this looks familiar to any of you, that's why."

There was a bit of laughter from the guests as Teddy and Victoire made their way down from the platform, followed by the bridesmaids and groomsmen. Once Kingsley left the platform, he waved his wand, and it decreased in size until it was just large enough for the band that moved onto it. The guests moved to the sides of the floor, and Victoire and Teddy began their first dance.

Rose stood with Lily and Alice by one of the tables for the duration of the dance, only to be left alone by them when their respective boyfriends approached. She took a flute of butterbeer from one of the trays that was floating around the room and sipped on it, her gaze locked on the dancing couples.

She nearly dropped the flute when someone tapped her on the shoulder, and she set it on the table before turning around to see a young man with a very familiar grin, blond hair, grey eyes, and a small scar across his left eyebrow.

"You prat," she said, smacking him on the shoulder. "I nearly dropped that!"

Scorpius's grin widened. "That rhymed."

She rolled her eyes. "Can I help you?"

"You looked bored, so I thought I'd ask you to dance," he said.

She raised her eyebrows. "Are you sure there's no ulterior motive here?"

He stuck out his lower lip and pretended to pout. "I thought we were friends, Red." When she simply tilted her head, he lifted his hands. "Honest, I'm just trying to be nice, but if you'd rather I left you here..."

She shook her head. "Merlin, no. I'm bored out of my mind."

He smiled and held out his hand. "I thought as much."

She watched him for a moment, shook her head, and placed her hand in his. "Don't make me regret this."

He pulled her out onto the dance floor and laid his free hand on her waist as she placed hers on his shoulder. "Don't worry, Red, I think you'll find that I'm a rather good dancer."

"I wasn't talking about your dancing skills," she said as they began to move.

She looked over his shoulder until he spoke. "So, I hear you made Head Girl. Congratulations."

"Let me guess," she said, looking at him. "Al told you."

He grinned. "Who else?"

"I've got to stop telling him things," she said, shaking her head. "Thank you, though."

"Any idea who the Head Boy is going to be?" he asked.

She shook her head again. "Unfortunately, no. I'm just hoping that whoever it is won't be awful to share a dormitory with, because if they are, I'll have to move back to Gryffindor Tower, and I'd really rather not do that. I'm looking forward to having my own room and not having to share a bathroom with five other people."

"I think you'll be just fine," he said. "Whoever it is, they're probably pretty great."

Rose shrugged. "We'll see, I guess. The choices aren't terrible, but just because they're nice people doesn't mean that they won't have absolutely horrible habits. I hear you made Quidditch Captain."

He nodded. "I did, yeah."

"Are you looking forward to it?"

"Yeah," he said. "I'm making everyone try out again for formalities' sake, and we've got a Chaser spot to fill now that Quinn's graduated, but there was some good talent on the reserve team last year, so hopefully at least one of them will come back for tryouts. It's going to be a good year, I think. Are you going to finally come to a match?"

"I've come before," she said. "You know that."

"Only because you've been dragged," he said. "I know Alice always made you come to the them because she wanted to see Declan and she didn't want to go by herself."

She rolled her eyes. "Okay, maybe it wasn't exactly voluntary, but I was there. Al's going to make me go this year anyway, since it's our seventh year and all of that. I do like Quidditch, and you know I play, I've just had other things to focus on. Don't worry, I'll be around."

"Good," he said. They danced in silence for the rest of the song, and when it ended, he grinned at her. "Oh, by the way... I'm Head Boy."

Before she could formulate a response, he winked at her and took off across the dance floor. She started after him, only to pause after a few steps to wrestle her shoes off her feet. Once the heels were hanging from her hand, she followed him out of the tent and onto the sand of the beach. It had grown dark, and the stars were reflecting in the water as she chased him down the sand. She finally caught up to him, and, unable to stop, slammed into him. They fell to the ground, and he turned them so that he took the brunt of the fall.

She looked down at him and smacked his shoulder. "You bastard! You should've told me!"

He grinned at her again. "I did, just... Not in the way you would've expected." After a moment, he gently pushed her off of him. "You don't look like you weigh that much, but that hurt."

"Sorry," she said, grinning as she settled herself beside him. "I think you deserve it, after pulling that."

He laughed. "Yeah, I probably did. So, how do you feel about your fellow Head now?"

"Only time will tell," she said. "We'll just have to wait and see."

They stayed there on the beach looking out at the ocean until Alice, Declan, Al, and Maddie came to find them.

"We wondered where you two went," Al said. "Care to explain?"

"Your best mate is a prat and failed to mention to me that he was going to be Head Boy, only to suddenly say it and take off, so I followed him," Rose said.

"Your cousin apparently can't judge distance and ran into me, and I didn't particularly feel like getting up after we fell over, so here I am," Scorpius said. "Merlin, Al, it's a good thing she's not into Quidditch."

"She's actually pretty decent, when she wants to be," Al said. "She just doesn't usually want to be."

"For good reason," Rose said. "The whole lot of you are mad."

"That depends on what your definition of mad is," Maddie said. "I prefer to call us incredibly dedicated."

"Whatever makes you happy," Rose said. "How are Teddy and Vic?"

"They haven't stopped staring at each other all night," Al said. "It's been a task and a half just to get them to talk to other people, let alone be separated from each other for three seconds."

"They just got married, can you blame them?" Rose asked.

"I guess not," Al said.

"That's what I thought," Rose said. She stood up and dusted the sand off of her dress. "Well, I should probably and assure my parents that I'm still alive. Scorpius, you're still a prat."

"Glad to hear your opinion of me hasn't changed," he said, smiling. "See you, Red."

"Yeah, yeah," she said. "Much to my displeasure."

He laughed. "You know you enjoy it."

"Keep telling yourself that," she threw over her shoulder as she walked away.

"Oh, believe me," he said. "I will."


	3. Chapter 2

If anyone had tried to tell first-year Rose Weasley that Scorpius Malfoy would be the Head Boy to her Head Girl, she would have laughed in their face, but nonetheless, she found herself sitting in the Heads' carriage with him waiting for the prefects to arrive on September 1st (They had told all of their friends to wait in other compartments until the meeting was over, and after a bit of grumbling on the parts of Al and Trent, everyone had agreed. As Rose had pointed out, it wasn't as though they couldn't leave their things in the Heads' carriage, they just couldn't stay in it, so it wasn't as bad as it could be).

She straightened her t-shirt and badge, only to narrow her eyes as Scorpius laughed. "What?"

"Nothing," he said, shaking his head. "It's just, you're worried about what they're going to think of you, as though it even matters."

"What's that supposed to mean?" she asked.

"Everyone knew you were going to get this position," he said. "Or at the very least, everyone important knew you were going to get it. Andrew and Julian both owe me three Galleons."

"You had a bet going about who would be Head Girl?" Rose asked. "I know that my family has a tendency to bet on everything, but you're an authority figure now, Scorpius. You don't have to turn everything into a game."

"But life is more fun that way," he said. "You should try it sometime, Red. It might do you some good."

She shook her head. "I intend to get through this year with the best grades possible and absolutely no infractions."

"I'd ask if it's possible for a Weasley to go through Hogwarts without infractions, but your Uncle Percy is proof that it is," Scorpius said. "Of course, he's not exactly proof that you can have fun while doing so. Come on, Red, live a little."

"I could be in uniform right now," she said. "I'm not as bad as I could be."

"Something for which I am very grateful," he said. "I don't think I could stand to share a dormitory with someone who was that uptight."

She rolled her eyes. "I should be the one who's upset. I have to share a dormitory with _you_."

"I'm going to be the best dorm-mate that you've ever had," he said, slinging his arm over her shoulders. "Just wait."

"I'm just going to hope that you're right, because otherwise, we're going to be in for one long year," she said. "You're good with the patrol schedule we came up with over the summer, right?"

He nodded. "Of course I am. We spent how long on that thing?"

"Three hours on a Tuesday," Rose said. "It was hardly a huge portion of your life."

He grinned. "Oh, but it could very well have been."

Shaking her head, she made a face. "You're ridiculous."

His grin widened. "I know."

He hadn't removed his arm from her shoulders when the prefects filed in, and she glanced at him pointedly. He raised his eyebrows, and she shrugged so that his arm fell off of her shoulders.

"Could you at least _try_ to be a little bit professional?" she asked, her voice a whisper.

He rolled his eyes. "Whatever the lady desires." He turned to face the prefects, and she clasped her hands behind her back as he began to speak. "Welcome to prefect duty, to those of you who are fifth years, and welcome back to those who were with us before. I'm Scorpius Malfoy, your Head Boy."

"I'm Rose Weasley, Head Girl," Rose said when Scorpius paused. "We'd like to go over basic procedures with you now, and we'll have a meeting tomorrow after dinner to assign patrols and address the specifics. For now, we'll just go over what we need to in order to get through the train ride and duty tonight."

"On the train, you'll be in charge of patrolling," Scorpius said. "We aren't asking you to stay out of your compartments away from your friends, but to take a walk every now and then and to deal with whatever you can or fetch us if you can't. We aren't on patrol duty for the train ride as we'll be taking patrol tonight."

"There isn't much else that you'll need to do, but after dinner tonight, you'll need to escort the first-years to your dormitories and tell them how to gain access to the common room," Rose said. "We'll meet after dinner tomorrow in the usual meeting room. For those who are unfamiliar, it's on the sixth floor beside the statue of Edgar the Eccentric. Please try to be there by eight o'clock, as patrols are meant to start by nine."

"Are there any questions?" Scorpius asked. When nobody said anything, he nodded. "Thank you for your time, and we'll see you then." The prefects filed out of the compartment and he grinned at Rose. "See, Red? I'm not so bad at this."

"Yet," she said. "I'm still waiting for you to slip up."

"Your lack of faith in me is astounding, and quite frankly, it hurts," Scorpius said.

"You know, I'd believe that, if it weren't for the fact that you're only serious about three percent of the time," Rose said. "Shall we get the others?"

"Rose Weasley actually asking me a question?" Scorpius asked. "What is this?" He grinned again. "That sounds like a fantastic idea, Red."

"I've told you not to call me that about four million times," Rose said as they left the compartment. "You're the worst."

"Actually, I'm the best," Scorpius said. "You told me that fifth year, remember?"

"I hate you," she said.

"No you don't," he said. "I know you like to tell yourself that, but we both know that it isn't the truth."

"Maybe not, but if you're not careful, it might be," Rose said. "Ah, here we are." She pushed open the compartment door and leaned inside. "We're done with the meeting, so the lot of you can feel free to move down to the Heads' carriage now."

"We're coming," Alice said. She, along with Helena and Serena, stood. "You coming, guys?"

"We are," Lorcan and Lysander chorused.

"Me too," Al said.

"Let us finish our game and we'll be along," Trent said.

The dark-haired boy across from him nodded. "What he said."

"All right," Rose said. "You know where to find us."

She led the way back to the Heads' carriage. Once they were there, she sunk into a seat by the window. Alice sat down beside her, and Serena and Helena sat down on the seats opposite.

"It's going to be a long year," Rose said, her gaze focused on the landscape that was flying past. "I can just feel it."

"It's seventh year, I don't think it's going to be as long as you think," Serena said. "I think it's going to go by faster than any of us expect."

Helena shrugged. "Ask me how fast it went on the last day of term, how about that?"

"Don't worry, I will," Serena said.

Helena nodded. "I look forward to it."

"I'm sure you do," Rose said. She looked up as the compartment door opened. "Hey Lil, Maddie."

"Hey," Lily said. "You don't mind if we join you, do you?"

Rose grinned. "To be perfectly honest, I was sort of expecting it, seeing as both of your boyfriends are here."

"I'm glad to know I'm predictable," Maddie said. "How was your summer, Rose?"

"It was decent," Rose said. "Yours?"

"A bit dull, really," Maddie said. "I spent some time in London with Jade and Jake though, and that was fun. If the whole summer had been like that, it would have been great."

"I feel like that happens a lot," Rose said. "Everything's a bit boring except for one or two really fantastic things."

"You saw me a bunch, so your summer couldn't have been that bad."

Rose turned to make a face at Scorpius. "Or you just happened to make it worse. Did you ever consider that possibility, or is your overly large head incapable of processing it?"

"You wound me," Scorpius said, pressing his hand to his heart. "I just want you to love me, Red."

"Stop calling me Red and there might be a better chance of it," Rose said.

"Well, that's not going to happen, so I suppose I'm just going to have to find another way to win your heart," Scorpius said.

Rose opened her mouth to speak, only to snap it shut when Al did it for her. "Stop flirting with my cousin, Scorp. It's weird."

"He flirts with everyone," Rose said. "I'm hardly any different."

"Yeah, except I'm related to you," Al said. "I'm not related to the rest of them. He's my best mate, and you're my cousin. Maybe if he were serious, that'd be one thing, but he's not. Right, Scorp?"

"Right," Scorpius said. "Rose knows that, don't you, Red?"

"Of course I do," Rose said. "I've spent enough time around you, much to my own displeasure."

"You wound me," Scorpius said.

Rose shook her head, pinching the bridge of her nose. "Yeah, I'm sure I do."

"You underestimate the power of your opinion," Scorpius said. "It's the most important thing in the entire world."

"I'll bet it is," Rose said. A moment later, she groaned. "Merlin, I'm hungry."

Scorpius reached into his pocket and pulled out a small package. He held it out to her. "Chocolate Frog?"

She looked from the wrapped Chocolate Frog to his face. "Why do I feel like there's a catch here?"

"Because you're paranoid and you think that I'm incapable of being nice for the sake of being nice," Scorpius said.

"Oh, right," Rose said. "That's it." She took the Chocolate Frog from him, unwrapped it, and took a bite. "I still hate you."

He grinned. "You'd better work on dealing with your negative feelings towards me, or this year is going to be even longer than you thought it would. We're sharing a dormitory, remember?"

"Don't remind me," she said. "I'm trying to put that thought out of my mind until I have to deal with it."

"Avoidance tactics never work, Rosie," Al said. "You might as well just reconcile yourself to the fact that you're stuck with this git for the rest of the year."

"Hey," Scorpius said.

Al shrugged. "I'm your best mate. I'm allowed to call you a git. It's in the rules."

"I'd like to see the rulebook, then," Scorpius said. "I don't call you a git, do I?"

"You don't, but that's 'cause he isn't one," Lorcan said.

"Do all of you really have that low of an opinion of me?" Scorpius said.

"Only sometimes," Lysander said. "Don't worry. It's only when you do something stupid."

"Which is regularly, so yes," Rose said.

"Yeah, we're really going to have to work on this," Scorpius said. "I can't very well live with somebody who has such a terrible opinion of me. It's just not going to end well. I won't have any self-esteem left by the end of term."

"You two will figure it out," Serena said. "And if not, Rose can just move back into the dormitory with us."

Rose made a face. "No offense, girls, but I'd rather not."

"We understand," Helena said. "Don't we?"

"Definitely," Alice said. "If I could have my own bedroom, I would. It'd be awfully nice to not have to worry about waking other people up by accident, or having to deal with things ending up in places where they shouldn't be—"

"Or being able to have your boyfriend over without having to deal with the responses of everyone else in the dormitory." Serena grinned at Alice, who made a face.

"I don't need to worry about that, seeing as I'm boyfriend-less and intend to remain that way unless someone really good comes along," Rose said. "I'm just looking forward to having a study space that isn't the library or the common room. Not having to continuously pack and unpack my things is going to be fantastic, and I'll know where everything is."

Scorpius rolled his eyes. "We know, Red, you love organization and would marry it if you could. You don't have to tell us twice."

"You're a prat," Rose said. "I hope you know that."

"You all tell me so often, I don't see how I could forget," Scorpius said.

"We're only trying to keep you out of trouble," Al said. "Obviously, it doesn't work, but we try."

"I can't be that bad," Scorpius said. "I am Head Boy, after all."

"Yeah, and so was my grandfather, but that doesn't mean he wasn't completely ridiculous for a while there," Al said. "I can't wait until you find a girl that you really, really like who refuses to put up with your absurdity. It'll be incredibly interesting to see how you handle it."

Scorpius rolled his eyes. "Please, Al, I'm going to end up with a girl who loves my absurdity, as you call it."

Rose laughed. "Keep telling yourself that."

"Well, the female population of Hogwarts can't seem to get enough of me, so I wouldn't be so quick to dismiss that," Scorpius said.

"I do believe the girls and I make up a portion of that female population, and last I checked, none of us have any interest in you," Rose said. "Right, girls?"

"That would be correct," Serena said.

"Definitely," Helena said.

"My interest is reserved for my boyfriend," Alice said.

"Mine too," Lily said.

"Likewise," Maddie said.

Rose grinned. "And there, my point is made."

"You make up what, one percent of it?" Scorpius asked. "Your interest, or lack thereof, is negligible. I'm willing to bet you that if you conducted a survey, more girls would say they find me attractive than would say they wouldn't."

"Well, seeing as I have absolutely no interest on wasting my time proving that I'm right, we'll just have to agree that you're out of your mind and be done with it," Rose said. She glanced up as the compartment door slid open, and smiled at the boys who entered. "Hey Trent, Beck."

"Hey Rose, pipsqueak, everyone," Trent said.

"Hi," Beck said.

Maddie rolled her eyes. "Oh, shut it, Trent. I'm only a year younger than you, and I'm the mature one most of the time. Hey, Beck."

"So, what'd we miss?" Trent asked, sitting down.

Al shook his head. "Not much, just the usual."

"Oh, Scorpius and Rose going at it again?" Trent asked. "So, nothing new then."

"Definitely not," Al said.

Rose sighed. "This whole thing is completely ridiculous. I'm going for a walk."

Without waiting for a response from anyone, she stood up and left the compartment. The sounds of conversation drifted out from the compartments as she walked along the corridor in between them, and she glanced around as she made her way down the train.

She had walked about halfway when someone else came into view walking down the corridor. They stopped in front of each other.

"Rose?" It was one of the sixth-year Ravenclaw prefects, a girl with honey-blonde hair and green eyes. "I thought that you weren't on patrol. Is something wrong?"

"Hi, Honor," Rose said. She shook her head. "Nothing's wrong, I just fancied a bit of a walk. How are things down here?"

"Fine, as far as I can tell," Honor said. "Evan's being a bit of a git about getting up and actually patrolling, but I'm working on it."

"I wish you luck," Rose said. "It's not exactly fun, sharing a position with somebody who doesn't seem to take it as seriously as you do."

"Is something wrong with you and Scorpius?" Honor asked.

Rose shook her head again. "No, not really, I'm just rambling. I think I'm going to go back now, but if Evan continues to refuse to patrol, come find me and I'll set him straight, all right?"

Honor smiled. "All right. Thanks, Rose."

Rose nodded. "Just doing my job."

She turned around and made her way back down the train to the Heads' carriage. When she went inside, there was a pile of candy and other food on one of the seats.

She groaned and sat down next to Alice, letting her head fall against the window. "Don't tell me I missed the trolley."

"You did," Serena said. "Don't worry though, we got you food."

Helena picked up a few things and threw them at Rose. She caught them and bit into one of the Cauldron Cakes eagerly. "You guys are the best, you know that?"

"Red, I'm flattered," Scorpius said.

Rose rolled her eyes. "Except for you."

He laughed. "I knew that was coming."

Rose took another bite of the Cauldron Cake, chewed, and swallowed. "Yeah, I'll bet you did."

"You know, I'll never understand why the two of you can't just get along," Al said. "This is getting to be ridiculous."

"Oh, we're friends," Scorpius said. "Right, Red?"

Rose nodded. "Friends who happen to have a love-hate relationship because a certain idiot won't stop calling me by that godforsaken nickname, but we're friends, yeah. We just wouldn't be us if we didn't argue all the time."

Al groaned. "I can't decide which would be worse, having the two of you stop arguing all the time and actually get along, but shock all of us in the process, or have the two of you continue to act like this for the rest of our lives so that we're still sitting through it when we're fifty."

"Well, I'm sure you'll find out eventually," Rose said. "For now, you're stuck with this."

"Let's just hope I survive the year," Al said. "After that, I'll only have to put up with this when I've mentally prepared myself and invited the both of you over to my flat."

"Keep telling yourself that, mate," Scorpius said. "Chances are we'll probably be living together, so I wouldn't speak too soon if I were you. With your luck, I'll end up inviting Rose over just for the sake of annoying you."

Al stared at him for a moment. "Remind me why I'm best mates with you again?"

"Because you couldn't find anyone better and I'm the greatest person to come through Hogwarts since Teddy Lupin, to hear the lot of you tell it," Scorpius said.

"You're really stretching it a bit there," Rose said. "Nobody will ever really compare to Teddy."

Scorpius grinned. "I'm going to prove you wrong about that."

"Go ahead and try," Rose said. "Just because you think you will doesn't mean that it's actually going to happen."

"You underestimate my powers of persuasion," he said. "You'll be singing a different tune by the end of the year, Red, I promise you that."

"If it makes you happy," Rose said.

His grin widened. "It does."

Serena looked at each of them for a moment and then shook her head. She reached into her pocket and pulled out a deck of cards. "Anyone for a game of Exploding Snap?"

When the train finally reached the station in Hogsmeade, Rose led the way onto the platform. Serena, Helena, and Alice followed her into one of the waiting carriages, and it started off towards the castle.

"I hadn't realized that it was possible for two people to intentionally antagonize each other that much until I met you and Scorpius," Serena said. "It's like a game for you, I swear."

Rose shrugged. "We don't mean it to be that way. It just sort of happens. I'm not really even sure when it was that we started to sort of get along and the teasing turned from attempts to make the other feel bad into genuine good-natured fun."

"If that's your definition of fun, I worry about you," Serena said.

Alice shook her head, a smile on her face. "That's just how they are, Rena. They've found some sort of common ground that works for them, and that's just the way that it needs to be. For your sake though, Rose, I hope that the two of you can manage to share a space without having that so-called genuine good-natured fun turn into negative barbs."

"We'll sort it out," Rose said. "I'm determined to have an entirely satisfactory performance as Head Girl, and if that means putting up with Scorpius's absolute madness for a year, then that's what I'll do."

"I hope that works out for you," Alice said. "I really, really do."

"I mean, whatever happens, happens, right?" Rose asked.

Serena gasped. "Rose Weasley, the girl who wants everything to be planned and organized down to the second, just admitted that things just _happen?_ What is this world coming to?"

Rose grinned. "I hate all of you."

"No, you don't," Alice said.

"Well, that's true," Rose said. "Most of the time, anyway."

Serena pressed her hand to her heart. "Most of the time? Rose, you're hurting my feelings."

"I'm sure that you'll survive," Rose said. "If you don't, I'll mourn your passing."

"Well, at least that's somewhat gratifying," Serena said. "I'm glad to know you care about me enough to mourn if I died."

"Someone has to do it, so it might as well be me," Rose said. "Merlin, I hope the Sorting goes quickly. I'm hungry again."

"I swear you're always hungry, Rose," Alice said. "I think you might have a problem."

"More like this whole thing is stressing me out and when I'm stressed I get hungry," Rose said. "Your cousin is first-year this year, right, Helena?"

Helena nodded. "Hudson's starting, yeah, and so is Krista. Lori and Rosalie aren't too thrilled that their little brother is joining them at school, but as I told them, they'll be happy to have siblings once they're older and they aren't seeing them every day for prolonged periods of time. They thought I was making it up, but I think they'll see reason in a few years."

"I know I'm glad to have Hugo," Rose said. "He may drive me mad sometimes, but he's a good kid."

"Cole's pretty great too," Alice said.

"Sometimes I think that Rae and I will never get along, but she's still a pretty decent sibling anyway," Serena said. "And Amos is just ridiculous, but once he grows up a bit I'm sure we'll get along wonderfully. As of right now I think he just wants his big sisters to keep their noses out of his business."

"Can you really blame him?" Alice asked. "If you had an older sibling, would you want them poking their nose into everything you did, or even just some things?"

"Probably not," Serena said, grinning. "But fortunately, I don't have an older sibling, so it's not something I need to worry about."

Alice shook her head. "You're mad."

"Always have been, probably always will be," Serena said.

They all laughed at that. A few minutes later, they arrived at the front of the castle. Rose led the way into the entrance hall, and then into the Great Hall. They took their seats at the middle of the Gryffindor table, and were joined a few moments later by the boys, Lily, Maddie, and some of the younger girls' friends. Over the time that followed, the rest of the Great Hall filled until no one else entered and gaps were left at each table. The room fell silent when Neville began to lead the first-years into the Great Hall. He set the stool down on the raised platform that held the table for the teachers and, Sorting Hat in hand, lifted a scroll.

"Alton, Krista," he said, his voice carrying over the quiet room.

A small girl with Helena's blue eyes hurried up to the stool. Neville lowered the hat onto her head, and a moment later, the tear at the brim opened. "HUFFLEPUFF!"

Krista looked around the Great Hall, and when she locked gazes with Helena, the older girl gave her a thumbs up. Krista smiled and moved down from the platform to make her way to the Hufflepuff table. Once she was seated, Neville looked at the scroll again.

"Averly, Hudson."

"Well, at least they're getting it out of the way early, huh?" Rose whispered to Helena as a dark-haired boy made his way up to the stool.

Helena smiled. "Definitely. They'll be able to relax much sooner than everyone else."

The hat was lowered onto Hudson's head, and it sat there for a moment before the tear opened and the hat shouted, "GRYFFINDOR!"

"Well, there's another one," Serena said. "Now we've got four of you."

"Much to Rosalie's chagrin, I'm sure," Helena said. "I'm glad to have Hudson with us. It'll do him some good, I think. He's always been fairly quiet."

"Like you, you mean?" Alice asked. She grinned when Helena blushed. "Only joking, Hel. You're just the quietest out of the lot of us."

"Don't think I haven't noticed," Helena said.

Serena chuckled quietly. "We've just got a group of particularly colorful personalities here."

Rose smiled and lifted her finger to her lips. "Quiet, guys. The Sorting isn't even close to being over yet."

They watched as the first years were sorted all the way through "Wilkins, Jacqueline." Neville lifted the stool and Sorting Hat and took them through the door by the staff table as Professor McGonagall stood.

"I'll have a few words for you after dinner, but for now, eat," she said.

"Thank Merlin," Rose said as she reached for the roast beef. "I'm starving."

"Hardly," Scorpius said. "It's been what, two hours since you last ate something? You're nowhere near death."

She stared at him, picked up a napkin, and threw it at him. "You're a prat."

He caught the napkin and set it down beside his plate. "So you've told me, Red. Thanks for the napkin, by the way. I needed one."

She fixed him with a glare as Al laughed. "You'd better be careful, Scorp, or you're not going to make it back alive from patrol tonight."

"Nah, she wouldn't," Scorpius said. "She likes me too much to kill me."

"You're really starting to push it now," Rose said. "I wouldn't speak too soon, if I were you."

Scorpius rolled his eyes. "Yeah, yeah. Whatever you say."

Rose shook her head and continued to fill her plate. The girls kept her distracted for the rest of dinner, and when it ended, Professor McGonagall caught Rose's eye and beckoned to her. She threw another napkin at Scorpius.

His head snapped towards her. "What?"

"Professor McGonagall wants us," she said. "Probably about the dormitory." She looked at the blonde-haired girl who sat beside Lily. "Verity, you've got the first-years, yeah?"

Verity nodded. "I'll make sure they get up to the dormitory safe and sound."

"Great, thanks," Rose said. "Come on, Scorpius."

"Whatever you say, Red," Scorpius said.

"I only wish that were true," Rose muttered as they walked up to the staff table.

Professor McGonagall waited until the last of the students had left the Great Hall before she spoke. "I trust you know where the Heads' dormitory is, given your family history with it, Miss Weasley." When Rose nodded, she continued. "You can set the password when you reach the tapestry, and your password will remain for the duration of the year. If, for any reason, you feel that you need to change it, you'll need to speak with myself or Professor Longbottom so that we can reset the enchantment."

"Thank you, Professor," Rose said.

Professor McGonagall inclined her head. "Go see your new dormitory, Miss Weasley, Mister Malfoy."

They said their thanks once more and then started up the stairs to the sixth floor. When they reached the tapestry, Rose didn't give Scorpius a chance to speak. "Eridanus."

The tapestry melted into the wall, revealing a door. Rose opened it and went into the common room, Scorpius on her heels. He shut the door behind him and turned to look at her. "What kind of password is that?"

She smiled. "Oh, it's a river from Hyperborea." When his brow furrowed, her smile widened. "It's from Greek mythology. I don't think anybody is going to guess that anytime soon, and seeing as we can't change it, let's be careful who we share it with, all right?"

He bowed slightly. "I give in to your wisdom on this matter."

She laughed. "It was bound to happen eventually. I'm going to go look at my room and unpack. Meet down here in an hour for patrol?"

He nodded. "Sure."

"Great," she said.

She crossed the common room and opened the door that had her name engraved on a plaque. The room that she entered made her pause and stare for a moment. It was decorated in Gryffindor colors, with a large four-poster bed, wing-backed armchair, dresser, and perhaps the best thing, a massive carved wooden desk. It took up the majority of the wall opposite the foot of the bed. Beside it was a door that Rose assumed led to her bathroom.

She shut the door behind her, and then, after a quick glance around the room, launched herself at the bed. She bounced in the air and then began to laugh as she stared at the canopy of the bed. After a moment, she stood up and crossed to where her trunk had been left beside the dresser. She opened it and began to put everything away, stowing the books inside on the shelf above the desk and the clothing in the dresser. When she finally looked at the clock after putting everything away and organizing it, she swore. She threw open the door and went out to the common room. Scorpius was lying on the couch, tracing something in the air with his wand. He sat up when he heard her footsteps.

"Ready for patrol?" he asked.

"You bastard," she said. "We should've left ten minutes ago."

He grinned and stood up. "If you weren't out in five I was going to come get you, but I figured that whatever you were doing must have been important, seeing as you're normally never late for things. Shall we?"

She rolled her eyes, but followed him out into the corridor anyway. Her wand hung loosely in her grasp as they began to walk, and every so often, she gave it a flick to open the doors to various broom cupboards.

After a while, Scorpius opened his mouth to say something, only to snap it shut when a muffled thud came from inside of the broom cupboard beside them. He stopped and looked at Rose. "Would you care to do the honors, or shall I?"

"I've got the door, you've got the punishment," Rose said. "We're taking it easy on them tonight, since it's the first day back and all, but only tonight."

Scorpius nodded. "After you, then."

Rose lifted her wand and gave it a flick. The door to the broom cupboard flew open, and a couple stumbled out. The girl hurriedly did up her skirt as the boy buttoned his shirt. They both stared at Rose and Scorpius expectantly.

Scorpius smiled slightly, his eyes narrowed. Rose watched him as he inclined his head, his gaze still trained on the couple. "Colfer, Claverdon, much as I enjoy having a good time, I'm well aware that broom cupboards aren't the best choice, especially on the first night back at school. Five points each from Slytherin and Ravenclaw. Get back to your common rooms, and believe me when I say that we'll find you if you try to go somewhere else tonight."

The girl hurried off. The boy rolled his eyes and crossed his arms. "You know, Malfoy, I never thought I'd see the day when you were the one handing out the punishments for this. There was a time when you would have been the one in that cupboard."

Scorpius raised his eyebrows. "Five more points from Slytherin for disrespecting a Head, Colfer, and as I said before, I'm too smart to snog someone in a broom cupboard." His voice deepened, and Rose tightened her grip on her wand. "Get back to your common room before I start docking even more points."

Colfer made a noise of disgust and walked off. Scorpius waited until he was gone to start walking again. Rose gaped at him for a moment before following.

They walked in silence for a while, Scorpius occasionally glancing at her. It wasn't until they had busted two more couples that he spoke. "We are friends, aren't we, Rose?"

She glanced at him. His grey eyes were solemn, his mouth flat. She raised her eyebrows. "What brought this on?"

He shrugged. "Dunno, I just... It's starting to feel like all of the teasing and everything else is becoming real, and not like it's just us poking fun at each other because it's what we do."

She turned her gaze back to the corridor in front of them, her grip on her wand tightening. "I've known you for what, six years now?"

He nodded. "Something like that, yeah."

"And out of everyone I spend time around, you're the only person that I've never had a single, genuine fight with," she said. "You may drive me absolutely mad, but you've never really made me angry. Of course we're friends, you idiot. So long as you don't do anything completely stupid or out of line, you don't have to worry about that."

He smiled slightly. "Good."

She grinned at him. "We'd just better make sure that we aren't too civil around Al, or he might have a heart attack."

"Yeah, I'd like to keep my best mate alive for as long as possible," Scorpius said. "I think we can spare him, don't you?"

"He is my cousin," Rose said. "I don't think Uncle Harry would like it very much if I was responsible for his death."

"Probably not, no," Scorpius said.

She chuckled quietly. "You know, I never thought I'd see the day when Scorpius Malfoy was worried about whether or not we were actually friends."

He glanced at her, grinning. "I'm glad to know I can still shock you even after six years."

"I'm sure you are," she said. "It seems like it's one of your hobbies."

"I do my best," he said. "I try to keep your life interesting."

"Well, there's certainly never a dull moment when you're around," she said.

"It's good to know that I'm not failing in my mission," he said. "What would you do if you didn't have me around?"

She glanced at him and laughed. "Move on with my life, probably." When he pretended to pout, she grinned. "Oh, don't be such a baby. I'd be sad for a bit, probably, but I'd move on with my life. We can't stay hung up on the people we lose. It just results in more difficulty for everyone. It's a waste of time and energy."

"When did you get to be wise?" he asked.

She shrugged. "I've always been wise, you just haven't been paying attention."

"Fair enough," he said. "I feel pathetic next to you now."

"I'm sure you do," she said.

They continued to make their way around the castle, catching no fewer than three more couples in the corridors and four on the way up to and on the Astronomy Tower. When they finally got back to their dormitory, Rose collapsed on the couch and groaned.

"Merlin, I'm glad we don't have to patrol every night. I don't think I'd survive if we did."

He laughed. "I'm starving. Will you give me detention if I sneak down to the kitchen, or can I do that without worrying about getting into trouble?"

"So long as you can do it without getting caught, I don't care," she said. "Just don't take too long. Although, I'll probably be asleep by the time you get back, so it doesn't really matter, but still. Try not to take too long."

"Will do," he said. "See you in a bit, and if I don't, sleep well."

"Thanks," she said. "Have fun on your adventure."

"I'll do my best," he said.

She waited until he left the common room again to cross to her door and go into her bedroom. It only took her a few moments to gather her pajamas and go into the bathroom. She showered quickly, pulled on her pajamas, and crawled into bed with a book.

After a while, she got out of bed and went out to the common room to get some water from the jug she had noticed sitting on a small table by the window. The only light in the room was that of the moon streaming through the window, causing shadows to layer across each other and leave the majority of the room in darkness. She filled one of the two glasses that sat beside the jug and lifted it to her lips, gazing out the window as she sipped at the water.

She was halfway done when the door to the common room slammed open. Her eyes widened when she heard Scorpius speak, and she turned towards the sound.

His voice was low, but it cut through the quiet nonetheless. "Desford, I already told you that I'm not interested. Following me isn't going to change that."

"Don't be an idiot, Malfoy," the girl said. "This is your only chance."

"Did you ever stop to consider that I don't want it?" Scorpius asked. "Now get out of here before you wake the Head Girl."

Rose stepped into the swath of moonlight, and cleared her throat. "Too late."

He whirled around. "Rose, I—"

Rose looked at the girl. Her dark brown hair hung in perfect loose curls around her face with its grey eyes and flawless features. Lifting one eyebrow, the girl watched Rose. "Desford, ten points from Slytherin for being out after hours. Go back to your dormitory before I make that a detention." When the girl didn't move, Rose narrowed her eyes. _"Go."_

There was a brief moment where they simply stared at each other before the girl flicked her hair over her shoulder, spun on her heel, and flounced out of the common room. The door swung shut behind her with a quiet _click_, and Rose took a sip from her glass as Scorpius stepped towards her.

"I'm sorry, Rose," he said, his shoulders slumped. "I didn't want to bother you."

She lifted the glass in his direction. "I was already awake, Scorp. What was that?"

"I bumped into Desford on my way back from the kitchens," he said, raking his fingers through his hair. "I felt a bit hypocritical taking points off when I was out after hours too, but then she came on to me and followed me all the way back here."

"And you didn't take her up on it? I'm shocked," Rose said. He ducked his head and she sighed. "Sorry, that was uncalled for."

"No, it wasn't," he said. "I think I'm just going to go to bed. I'll see you tomorrow."

She caught his hand as he walked past her. He glanced at her and she offered him a small smile. "Night."

One corner of his mouth lifted. "Night, Red."

With that, she was left alone in the darkness of the common room.


	4. Chapter 3

September 2nd was a Saturday that year, and Rose awoke just before her alarm was set to go off. She shut it off so that it wouldn't startle her while she was in the bathroom, gathered her clothes, and went into the ensuite so that she could change, brush her teeth, and fix her hair. Having no classes that day, she opted to wear a sleeveless blouse and a loose skirt. A cardigan over top finished off the look, and she tucked her wand into the waistband of her skirt before leaving her room. Scorpius's door was still closed when she went into the common room, and she glanced at it for a moment before she left the dormitory.

She was nearly to the Great Hall when someone called her name. She turned around to see Serena hurrying down the stairs towards her.

"Hey, Rena," Rose said, smiling. "Where are Alice and Helena?"

"Still asleep," Serena said, rolling her eyes. "You know how they get when we're just back to school. How was your first night in the Heads' dormitory?"

Rose shrugged. "Okay, I guess."

Serena's eyes lit up. "Oh, did something interesting happen?"

Rose made a face. "I don't know if you'd really want to call it interesting, to be perfectly honest. More like annoying and completely unnecessary on all parts."

"Spill," Serena said.

"It's really nothing," Rose said. "I got up to get some water before I went to bed, only to witness the ever-lovely Oriana Desford trying to get Scorp to hook up with her."

Serena's eyes widened as they made their way to their usual seats at the Gryffindor table. "Not _the _Oriana Desford? The one that turned down the forever gorgeous Lionel Claverdon as a fifth-year? The fittest girl in the entire school? Ice Queen Oriana Desford? That one? And what do you mean, trying?"

Rose wrinkled her nose and nodded. "Yeah, that one. Merlin knows how Thad is related to her, since he's the sweetest kid on the planet. And I said trying because he wasn't interested." Serena's eyebrows rose. "I know, right?"

"Maybe he isn't as much of a git as I thought he was," Serena said.

"Who isn't a git?"

Rose glanced up from her porridge. "Hey Alice. Morning, Hel."

Helena groaned and sat down. "I wish it wasn't. Pass the porridge, would you?"

Rose passed the bowl across the table and looked at Alice. "Scorpius isn't a git."

"That's a bit of a change from your usual attitude," Alice said. "Did something happen?"

Rose launched into an explanation of what had happened the night before. When she finished, Alice shook her head. "Honestly, Rose, I'm not really that surprised that Scorpius did something like that." She smiled at the sight of Rose's shocked expression. "He may be a bit much sometimes, but he's not the type to ignore your boundaries like that. The thing that surprises me is that Oriana was actually trying to sleep with him."

"Why does that surprise you?" Serena asked. "You know as well as we do that she slept with Verity's cousin Darragh last year, three days before end of term, and while Scorpius may be a complete and utter prat sometimes, he's also the most attractive boy at Hogwarts at the moment."

"I beg your pardon," Alice said.

Serena rolled her eyes. "I said at Hogwarts, Ali. We all know that you think Declan is the most attractive boy in the world, don't worry."

Alice grinned. "Good." Her expression grew serious a moment later. "Honestly, though. Why would Oriana Desford be willing to sleep with Scorpius Malfoy? You know how she is."

"What do you mean?" Rose asked. "I mean, she's the reigning Ice Queen of Hogwarts, but I don't understand your point."

Alice shook her head. "Merlin, it's a wonder how you had almost all Os on your O.W.L.s. The Desfords are about as close to huge blood purists as it gets, or at least, Oriana's parents are. Thad and Jonathan's dad married a Muggle-born, so he obviously doesn't care, and that's why Thad and Jon aren't so bad, but Oriana's father was in sixth year when our parents were in first and he ended up marrying Isolde Blishwick a few years after he graduated. They weren't involved in the war much, since he spent a few years in Canada as an ambassador to the Ministry there, and I wouldn't say that they outright hate people with Muggle blood, but they still think that you should marry within your own blood and all of that. As far as they're concerned, Thad is a traitor to the family just because he was sorted in Gryffindor, and—"

"Scorpius is a traitor to his family because he's a Gryffindor and not a Slytherin like the rest of the family was," Rose said, her eyes widening. "Merlin, I hadn't thought of that."

Alice smiled. "Well, someone has to be the smart one around here."

"But still, Scorpius is the fittest boy in our year, and probably the fittest boy in the whole school, though I'm sure Maddie and Lily would definitely argue with that," Serena said. "Think about it. It was the first day back, so everyone would be preoccupied with their own relationships, it was after curfew and after patrol so the chances of someone seeing were next to nothing, especially since Oriana probably figured you'd be asleep, Rose, and the Heads' dormitory is fairly secluded with no other dormitories on the floor, so the likelihood of someone seeing her come and go is miniscule. I'd bet you that she wanted to sleep with him since he is fit and all, and so she attempted to on the night when she was the least likely to get caught. You know Scorpius. He may sleep with people, but he doesn't really spread it around. They spread the story, and he just doesn't deny it, which is why some of those ridiculous rumours have been floating about over the last year or so. If she wanted to keep it a secret and she didn't tell anyone, you can bet that he wouldn't either."

"Damn, Rena, you should be a detective," Alice said. "That's some impressive logic right there."

Serena grinned. "I do my best."

Helena shook her head. "It's too early for this."

"It's a Saturday, love," Rose said. "Once you're done with breakfast, you can go back up to the dormitory and sleep if you're really still that tired."

"Yeah, I guess," Helena said.

Alice laughed. "Don't worry, Hel, you've got the whole day to laze about if you're still tired after breakfast. Back to the situation, though. She must really want to sleep with him if she was going to those lengths to do it without getting caught."

Rose made a face. "Why anybody would want to sleep with Scorpius Malfoy is beyond me. He may be fit, but he's not exactly boyfriend material."

"Oh, so you admit that he's fit?" Serena asked.

Rose rolled her eyes. "Anybody with a pair of working eyes can see that he's fit, Rena. He may drive me absolutely mad, but even I can see that he's attractive."

"Who's fit?"

Rose turned around to see Al standing there, Lorcan and Lysander behind him. Al took the seat beside her as Lorcan and Lysander moved to sit on the other side of the table. Rose shook her head. "Nobody, Al. Don't worry about it."

Al raised his eyebrows, but reached for the toast anyway. "If you say so."

"I do," Rose said. "I really, really do."

Alice sighed. "I guess we'll talk about this later, then."

Rose poured herself some water and groaned. "If we have to."

"We do," Alice said.

"Say, Rosie?"

Rose turned to look at Al. "Yeah?"

He buttered his toast and set it on his plate. "Did something happen with Scorpius last night? He came to the dormitory right before we left and he's not saying anything to anyone. He didn't even want to come downstairs for breakfast, that's how bad it is, and you know how that kid never passes up a meal."

Rose took a sip of water and swallowed. "Uh... Not that I know of, Al. Sorry. We went on patrol and when we got back to the dormitory, he headed down to the kitchens for a bit of food and I got ready for bed."

"Well, maybe try talking to him?" Al asked. "He's acting a bit strange, and I'm a little concerned."

"If he's not around by lunch I'll talk to him," Rose said. "I'm sure he'll be fine."

"I suppose you're right," Al said. "Merlin, I wish we'd started classes today. I'm already a bit bored."

"Go take your broom down to the pitch and toss the Quaffle around with Lily and Drew after breakfast or something," Rose said. "I doubt they'd pass that up."

Alice nodded. "Try and get Cole in on it too, if you wouldn't mind. He wants to try out for the open Chaser position and he's a bit nervous about it, not that he'd ever actually admit that to anyone. I think it would do him some good to go play with some of the team members now that we're back at school."

"He's played with us since he was little," Al said, reaching for his goblet. "Why would he be nervous about it? We all know how he plays."

"I know," Alice said. "It's just that he's not used to playing with the team, and I think he's a bit worried that someone from a lower year is going to come in and upstage him, you know?"

Al smiled. "Yeah, I felt the same way when I tried out for the team, even though there wasn't really anyone younger than me who could. I'll go find him after breakfast."

"That would be great, thanks," Alice said. "But don't tell him that I asked you to, if you wouldn't mind. I don't think he'd ever forgive me for that. Pride and all of that."

"Of course," Al said.

After breakfast, Rose made her way up to the dormitory. She fetched a book and a blanket and went down to the shore of the lake, where she spread the blanket under a tree and settled down with her book. It was reasonably warm, the sun reflecting off the water, and she lost herself in the story as the day wore on.

When she finally got up, it was to realize that she had missed lunch. She bundled the blanket under her arm and made her way to the kitchens. Her eyes widened when she stepped through the doorway, and she set her book and blanket down on a table before making her way towards the table and chairs that sat at the center of the room.

The boy who sat there looked up and smiled at her. A lock of dark hair curled over his forehead, and his brown eyes were warm. His voice was deep when he spoke. "Hey, Rose."

She smiled slightly. "Hey, Guy. I wasn't aware that you frequented the kitchens."

He chuckled. "I don't, normally, but I was reading and I got so caught up that I forgot to come down to the Great Hall for lunch, so here I am. I'd ask what you're doing here, but everyone knows that the Weasleys, Potters, and their friends are all regular visitors to this part of the school, so you might not have any reason at all."

She grinned. "I knew it wasn't a typical Ravenclaw trait." Her smile widened. "And I actually do have a reason today, and it's quite similar to yours. Almost exact, actually, except for the fact that I was down by the lake, not in my dormitory."

"There's nothing like a good book to keep you from a meal," he said. "Unfortunately, I seem to have made skipping meals because I was reading a habit, which probably isn't the wisest decision in the world."

"And you're a Ravenclaw, you're meant to be all about wisdom," she said. "I can get away with it. I'm a Gryffindor. Making stupid decisions goes with the territory."

"Something for which I envy you," he said. "Congratulations on making Head Girl. Skylar always thought she would get it, but I knew better. I do believe you're the most diligent prefect we have at the moment."

"I do my best," Rose said. "Fortunately, in this case, it seems that it was enough."

"I don't see how it couldn't be," he said. "What's it like working with the infamous Scorpius Malfoy?"

"It's pretty good so far," Rose said. "There's still the whole year left for him to change my mind, though, so ask me in nine months."

Guy laughed. "I understand. So, are you excited for classes to start?"

Rose smiled and sat down. "I am, yeah."

They talked for a while as Rose ate, and when she finished, she glanced at him.

"I hate to cut this short, but I need to go check on something before dinner," she said. "I'll see you in Charms on Monday?"

He nodded, his smile widening. "Definitely."

She smiled at him once more, picked up her blanket and book, and hurried up to the dormitory.

Scorpius was sitting in the common room when she went inside, but he didn't look at her as she set her things down. She watched him for a few moments, and when he didn't lift his head, she made her way over to the couch and sat down beside him.

"What's going on, Scorp?" she asked. He shook his head and she sighed. "Don't do this with me. We're past it. Al's worried about you and so am I."

"It's nothing," Scorpius said, his voice quiet.

"Hardly," Rose said. "You skipped breakfast. You never miss a meal."

"Well, you skipped lunch," he said.

"I was reading down by the lake and I lost track of time," she said. "I do that when you aren't there to bring me food or remind me that it's time to eat."

He raked his hands through his hair. "I guess I just figured you were avoiding me."

"Why would I do that?" Rose asked. He didn't say anything. "Is this about last night?" He shrugged. "Scorp, I don't care about that. Nothing happened and it's not like you were trying to bother me with it."

He closed his eyes and lifted a hand to his face. "I just figured you'd be mad," he said, his voice muffled. "Or disappointed, even. It was our first night in the dormitory and I felt like I already messed it up."

"We hadn't even set any rules yet," Rose said. "We probably should have, but it would be wrong of me to get mad at you when we haven't laid any boundaries for this." She smiled. "It would be even more wrong of me to be angry with you for trying to _not_ bother me with it." He still wouldn't lift his head and she nudged his shoulder with hers. "Hey, look at me, would you?" He glanced at her. She tucked herself against his side and after a moment he lifted his arm to wrap it around her shoulders. "We're good, okay? We can talk about ground rules later."

"Are you sure?" he asked. She drew back far enough to stare at him, and a small smile formed on his face. "Yeah, I know, you wouldn't say it if you weren't sure."

"See, you know me well enough," she said, returning to her earlier position and closing her eyes. "I may like taking the mickey, but I don't automatically assume the worst of you every time you mess up, got it? Next time just talk to me instead of avoiding everything."

He hummed his agreement and tilted his head to rest his cheek against her hair. They sat there in silence for a while, with nothing but the sounds of their breathing to fill the room. Rose could feel her heartbeat level out, and she shifted ever-so-slightly closer to Scorpius's side. He simply adjusted his arm to better-accommodate her and she smiled to herself.

She was nearly asleep when he shifted a while later, lifting his head. He gently squeezed her shoulder with his hand, and his voice was soft when he spoke.

"Red, it's time for dinner."

She shook her head, only for him to a chuckle a moment later. "Come on, Rose. Worrying about your righteous anger made me work up an appetite."

He didn't try to get her to move, though, and after a minute of quiet she sat up and opened her eyes. She straightened her cardigan as he removed his arm from her shoulders, and he offered her his hand once he stood up.

"How kind of you," she said, grinning at him.

He rolled his eyes as she slipped her hand into his and allowed him to help her to her feet.

They had just left the dormitory when she glanced at him, their hands brushing as they walked. "Seriously, Scorp, why did you think I would get so mad at you?"

"I don't know," he said, sighing. "I know that there are all the rumors floating around, and I haven't exactly done a great job of trying to dispel them, so I figured that you were going to—"

"Think the worst of you and condemn you immediately?" Rose asked. He nodded and she shook her head. "You drive me absolutely mad, Scorpius Malfoy, but I know you aren't that much of a git. At least, I think I know that, anyway. What you get up to in your free time is your business as long as you aren't hurting anybody."

"To hear some people tell it, I do that on a regular basis," Scorpius said.

"It's never your goal, though, is it?" Rose asked.

"No," he said. "It's just sort of a side effect."

"Then there you have it," she said. "You may live to make my life difficult, but you're not a cruel person. If anything, I'm hurt that you thought I would doubt you that much."

He shrugged. "I never know what to expect from you, Red."

"You'd think you would after the six years I've spent putting up with you," she said.

He cracked a smile then. "You're still as much of an enigma as ever, if not more so."

"I'm going to take that as a compliment," she said.

He didn't say anything in response, but in her peripheral vision, Rose could see his smile widen. She smiled to herself and tucked her hair behind her ear as they made their way into the Great Hall, which was already filled with most of the school. Their friends had left them seats opposite each other at the Gryffindor table, and Al looked up as they sat down.

"Oh, good, you found him," Al said. "We were beginning to think we were going to have to send out a search and rescue team, Scorp."

"Someone fell asleep and I had to wake her up before we could come down here," Scorpius said, grinning at Rose. "Past the roast beef, would you, Lorcan?"

"For your information, I wasn't asleep," Rose said as she scooped some potatoes onto her plate. "I just really didn't want to move."

"Whatever you say, Red," Scorpius said.

"If only that were the truth," Rose said.

Serena rolled her eyes. "You two are ridiculous."

"We know," Rose and Scorpius chorused.

Alice watched them for a moment and then shook her head. "I don't know what we're going to do with the pair of you, but anyway… Anyone up for a few rounds of Exploding Snap later?"

"Scorp and I have a prefect meeting," Rose said. "We can come afterward though."

"I dunno," Scorpius said. "I might make an early night of it. I want to run some drills tomorrow morning."

"Don't tell me you're going to make us get the whole team together before tryouts have even happened," Al said.

"Seriously, I'm not waking up that early until I have to," Lily said.

"I'm with Lil on that one," Maddie said. "This doesn't involve us, does it?"

"No, it doesn't, so the lot of you can stop complaining and the rest of you don't need to start," Scorpius said. "You might want to think about flying a bit before tryouts, though. You never know when I'll wind up replacing some of you."

"You wouldn't dare," Lorcan said.

"I wouldn't test him," Drew called from down the table. "You know how serious he gets about Quidditch."

"Thank you, Barnaby," Scorpius called back before he glanced around at everyone else. "See, she's safe now."

"Are you trying to tell everyone that they should be sucking up to their Captain if they want to keep their spots?" Rose asked. "Low blow, Malfoy."

"So is that a no to Exploding Snap?" Helena asked in the brief pause that followed Rose's words, inciting a round of laughter.

After dinner, Rose and Scorpius made their way to the Heads' office. It was a little-used room, given that the Heads almost always shared a dormitory, but it was an ideal place for hosting prefect meetings. The long table which ran the length of the room always had enough seats for everyone who was there and the room provided a quiet, secure location to conduct any and all prefect business.

It wasn't long after Rose and Scorpius settled themselves that the prefect arrived. Once they were all there and seated, Rose stood up and waved her wand. A piece of parchment flew from a stack at the center of the table to land in front of each of the prefects, who glanced at the text with interest.

"What you have in front of you is a copy of this year's patrol schedule," Rose said. "In the upper right-hand corner, you'll find your partner, who will remain as such for the year unless unusual circumstances arise. Aside from the Head Boy and myself, your partners are a mix of years and houses." One of the sixth-year Slytherin prefects raised their hand. Rose stifled a sigh. "Yes, Asher?"

"Why are you the only ones who aren't paired with someone else?" the dark-haired boy asked. "Getting up to something you shouldn't be?"

Rose opened her mouth to respond, but snapped it shut when Scorpius spoke. "As a matter of fact, Marone, we're on patrol together because we can use that time to discuss Head business. If you hadn't realized, I'm also the Gryffindor Quidditch captain, and we've both got N.E.W.T.s to worry about, so if we can combine tasks, that gives us more time to study, or, y'know, sleep." Asher opened his mouth to say something, and Scorpius held up his hand. "The Head Girl and myself are as professional as possible, I assure you. Next question. If there aren't any, let our Head Girl continue, please."

Rose glanced at him. He nodded, his mouth set in a thin line. She took a deep breath and continued to speak. "We'll follow that rotation cycle for the duration of the year. If you need to reschedule one night, please try to sort it out amongst yourselves and only bring it to us if you absolutely have to. As the Head Boy pointed out, we're both quite busy, and it would be better for everyone if we only had to get involved when necessary. That being said, if you have issues with the patrol schedule or your partner, please come to us. We want this year to go as smoothly as possible, and that won't happen if there's any tension amongst the prefects."

Scorpius nodded again. "We only ask that if you do need to come to us about something, please do it at a reasonable hour when we aren't trying to do something else, or better yet, send us a note in advance asking to meet with us so that we've got time set aside for you. Now, as for basic patrol procedures..."

"If you're not a fifth-year, you should be familiar with these, but regardless, the review will be good for you," Rose said. "When it comes to those who are out after curfew, first offense is typically a five-point deduction, ten if they're doing something inappropriate. Second offense is ten or fifteen. Third offense is fifteen points and a detention."

"If something is dangerous, you can all do a Patronus," Scorpius said. "Send it to fetch us, and we'll either come ourselves or bring a teacher depending on the severity of the situation. Whatever you do, don't get yourselves involved unless you know that you'll be safe."

"Any questions?" Rose asked. When no one moved, she nodded. "Right. Well, you know who's on patrol tonight, and we'll have a meeting once every two weeks. If you look at the bottom of your patrol schedule, you'll find a date and time on the line. With a handy little spell known as the Protean Charm, I can change that to reflect the date and time of the next meeting. Keep an eye on it, and we'll see you then."

Asher seemed like he wanted to say something, but a quick look from Scorpius quickly silenced him. Rose hung back as the prefects filed out of the room, and as soon as she and Scorpius were the only ones left, she grinned.

"We're as professional as possible?"

He glanced at her, mirth in his expression. "That's what you want, isn't it?"

"In settings like the one we were just in, yeah," she said. "But when we're just hanging out? I'll take normal you."

They made their way out of the room as he chuckled. "I wasn't aware that you had a definition of normal for me."

"I do," Rose said. "I'm not sure that you'd want to know what it is, though."

"Part of me wants to, but a bigger part of me says that you're probably right," Scorpius said. "Do you want to go join the others in Gryffindor Tower?"

"I think I'll pass tonight," Rose said.

Scorpius nodded. They made their way back to the dormitory in a state of peaceful quiet after that, and it wasn't until they were comfortably settled on the couch in the common room that Rose spoke again.

"We should probably lay out some ground rules for this whole situation, shouldn't we?" she asked.

"That might help, yeah," he said. "Any ideas?"

"Well, I guess based off of last night, my main request is that you don't bring anyone back here overnight," Rose said. "To make it a fair exchange, I can't bring anyone here either, which isn't to say that I would in the first place, but—"

"I get it, Red," Scorpius said, smiling. "I suppose that's a fair rule, but I have a rule for you."

"Should I be scared?" Rose asked.

"If you were anyone else, I'd say no, but seeing as it's you…" Scorpius said. "My only rule is that you have to try to have a little bit of fun this year, all right? You don't do anything to get me into any trouble. Sneak down to Hogsmeade or to the top of the Astronomy Tower or something." He grinned. "You're a Weasley. I know you have it in you to cause a little bit of trouble."

"I expect you to help me in that adventure, if that's what you want from me this year," Rose said.

His grin widened. "Oh, I can help you all right."

She gaped at him, only to pick up a pillow and throw it at him a moment later. "You prat, that's disgusting!"

He laughed. "I would never dream of it, Red. Not unless you asked me to."

"Well, that's not going to happen, so just put it out of your mind, would you?" she asked.

"No can do, Red, now that it's in there it's not going anywhere," he said.

"You're disgusting," she said. "I should have let you keep thinking I was mad at you. It would save me so much trouble."

"Your life would be boring without me in it," he said. "You know that as well as I do."

"Unfortunately," she said. "What do you say we head down to the kitchens for a bit of hot chocolate?"

"It's not hot chocolate weather," he said. When she stuck out her lower lip, he rolled his eyes. "Yeah, all right."

She clapped her hands together. "You're the best."

He smiled. "So I've heard."

* * *

**A/N:**

**Oh hey, I'm back.**

**Short update: I'll be updating this story on Mondays (though not at any specific time and I do forget every once in a while, but Mondays are the goal). I'm also posting it over on AO3 (and that has become my preferred platform). Some minor edits have been made since the first two chapters were posted on here (well, minor edits to those chapters, anyway). **

**At some point I'll be rewriting IYAIS and IYFML and migrating them over to AO3 as well, but I'll let you guys know when I make the final switch (it'll probably be at the end of this story, to be honest. You guys are great but AO3 is just an easier platform for me to use). My AO3 username is thespiritofcuriosity, though I do have a pseud that is the same as my name on here. **

**Thanks for reading. Peace and love x**

**~AC**


	5. Chapter 4

The first Hogsmeade visit of the year was the last weekend of September. An early chill had set in, and Rose pulled on a coat and scarf over her sweater in an attempt to stave off the cold. The common room was empty when she entered it, Scorpius having already left for the carriages, and she took one last glance around the room before exiting it herself so that she could go downstairs to meet up with Helena and Serena.

She joined the stream of students who were going downstairs. They were only three flights from the entrance hall when somebody called her name. She stopped and turned around to see Guy hurrying down the stairs towards her, his hands in the pockets of his jacket.

He grinned at her when he reached her. "Hey."

She smiled. "Hey."

They began to walk again, slower than she had been moving earlier. He glanced at her. "Excited for Hogsmeade?"

She shrugged. "Yeah, it should be good. Alice is abandoning us to go see Declan, so it's only going to be three of us today, but it should still be fun anyway."

Guy raised his eyebrows. "They're still together?"

Rose laughed and nodded. "Yeah, they are. Have been for ages, and their parents are old friends, so they've known each other for a long time. To be perfectly honest, I wouldn't be surprised if they ended up married fairly soon after we leave school. I think that they both know that they're it for each other. I sort of envy them for that, if I'm being entirely honest."

"Really?" Guy asked. "You don't strike me as that sort."

Rose glanced at him. "What sort do I strike you as, then?"

He grinned and ruffled his hair. "You strike me as the sort who knows exactly what she wants out of life and who is going to do everything in her power to get it, and if that means compromising herself in other areas, then she will. Basically, I think you're extraordinarily self-motivated and you don't have any room in your life for distractions right now."

She nodded slowly. "That is... remarkably accurate."

His grin widened. "I try my best."

"I'm sure you do." She shrugged. "I dunno, I mean, I do know exactly what I want and all of that, but there's nothing to say that I won't change my mind before the end of the year, and as for not wanting any distractions, that's true, but that doesn't mean I don't want to have any fun." She made a face a moment later. "As a matter of fact, I made a promise to somebody that I was going to do my best to actually enjoy myself this year rather than just sticking to coursework and driving myself mad."

"Oh?" He smiled again. "I guess I'll just have to do my best to help you with that mission this year, then."

She looked at him, the corners of her mouth curling up. "If our most recent conversations are anything to tell, I can guess that you're going to be incredibly good at that." Someone called her name, and she turned to see Serena and Helena standing by the door, the former beckoning to her. Glancing back at Guy, she smiled sheepishly. "I should go, the girls..."

He nodded. "Yeah, my friends are down here too. See you, I guess."

"So it would seem," she said. She touched his shoulder gently before she made her way over to where Helena and Serena stood. "Hey, guys."

Serena raised her eyebrows. "Talking to Guy again, are we?"

Rose rolled her eyes. "You say that like it's something that's absolutely unheard of, Rena."

"Rose, you're forgetting that I was around you for all of fifth year." Serena crossed her arms. "You were so intent on studying for your O.W.L.s that you not only refused to look at boys, you also refrained from engaging in any of our conversations about them. Helena hardly said anything, but she's quiet as it is, so that's hardly shocking. You, though? Fourth year you offered your opinion up plenty of times, same with last year, but I know you, and I know that this is unusual behaviour for you, Miss I'm-going-to-get-Os-on-all-of-my-exams."

Rose's eyes widened. "You're mad." She looked at Helena. "Hel, tell her that she's mad."

Helena lifted one shoulder and let it drop. "I don't know, Rose, I'm kind of inclined to agree with Rena on this one. This is rather out of character for you."

"I ignore both of you." Rose lifted her chin and marched out of the entrance hall. Serena and Helena followed behind her, both laughing.

They entered one of the carriages and were just about to shut the door when Scorpius and Trent climbed in.

Serena looked at them, her brow furrowed. "What are the two of you doing here?"

"Well, Beck and Lysander are off doing Merlin knows what, and we got tired of watching Lorcan and Al suck face with their respective girlfriends, so here we are," Trent said. "You don't mind, do you?"

Rose grinned. "Not at all. I can't say I blame you for wanting to get away from them. They drive me mad and I'm related to half of each of those couples. It stopped being cute a really long time ago."

"I'm glad to know you feel our pain," Trent said.

Scorpius shook his head. "The lot of you are mad." He looked at Rose, Serena and Helena. "So, girls, what do you have planned for the day?"

"Dunno," Rose said. "We're going to wander around the village, pick up some things at Honeydukes, stop in to the Three Broomsticks, maybe pay a visit to the Shrieking Shack. We'll see what happens."

"That's always the best way to do things," Scorpius said. "I must say, Red, I'm glad to see that you're getting out. Good to know you're at least attempting to make good on your promise."

"We wouldn't dream of letting her stay back on a Hogsmeade weekend, don't you worry," Serena said. "There's no escaping this."

"It's good to know that I have people there to help me with my mission to get Rose to actually have a good time this year," Scorpius said. "I was a bit worried that it was going to be a one-man job."

"Oh, never," Serena said. "We're horribly invested in making sure that Rose doesn't turn into a recluse, right, Hel?"

Helena nodded. "Most definitely. She's our best mate, we like to see her face every now and then."

"You see me every day in class and at meals," Rose said. "I'm hardly a hermit, Rena."

"Maybe not, but seeing you in class and at meals isn't the same as spending time with you outside of things that we all need to do," Serena said. "Getting you out of your dormitory is a very important task."

"I'm sure it is," Rose said. "Because that time totally couldn't be better spent if you devoted it to revising for our N.E.W.T.s or anything like that."

Serena sighed. "See, Rose, this is exactly what I'm talking about. You need to live a little, get out there, not spend all of your time worrying about the next exam. That's hardly a way to live your life."

"Maybe, maybe not," Rose said. "In the meantime, however, I'm going to do my best to do well at school and I'll figure the rest of it out along the way."

"So long as you make good on your promise, you can do whatever you want," Scorpius said.

Rose rolled her eyes. "I'll make good on mine if you make good on yours."

He grinned at her. "Hey, I haven't broken it so far, have I?"

She laughed. "No, you've been doing remarkably well at not bringing your one night stands back to our dormitory, Scorpius. How can I ever begin to thank you?"

He opened his mouth to reply, only to make a noise of disappointment when Trent clapped his hand over it. Trent raised his eyebrows. "Scorp, I know exactly what was going to come out of your mouth, and I'm telling you now: don't say it."

Scorpius groaned, the sound muffled by Trent's hand, and nodded. Trent pulled his hand away and Scorpius made a face. "You're stifling me."

"More like not giving Rose a reason to hex you into oblivion," Trent said. "Much as I may like you, mate, I don't think I'd ever want to go up against an angry Rose Weasley. Actually, forget Rose, I wouldn't want to go up against anyone with Weasley blood if they were really, honestly mad."

"And you'd be wise to know that you shouldn't do that," Rose said. "I'm glad to know that one of the guys in this carriage is smart enough to know that angering us is a bad idea."

Trent chuckled. "I like my head right where it is, and I know Vic, so I'm not about to test any of you."

"Smart move," Rose said.

They came to a halt on the outskirts of Hogsmeade a few minutes later. The wind blew at Rose's hair as she got out of the carriage, and she tucked the loose strands behind her ears while she waited for Helena and Serena to disembark as well. She tucked her hands into her pockets as they began to walk down the path, and they stopped once they reached the center of the shops.

"Where to first?" Serena asked.

Rose shrugged. "I need a new quill, so Scrivenshaft's?"

"Might as well," Serena said. "Any opinions, Hel?"

Helena shook her head. "I have no preference so long as we make it to Honeydukes. I need some chocolate."

Rose laughed. "You and me both, Hel. You and me both."

They made their way to Scrivenshaft's, where they remained for a while as Rose picked out a quill and Serena selected a bottle of color-changing ink. Once they were finished, they wandered through the streets of Hogsmeade out towards the Shrieking Shack. A few of the trees had begun to change color, providing a tapestry of orange, yellow, and green behind the house.

Serena leaned against the fence. "It's so hard to believe that Al's grandfather used to spend so much time there."

Rose rested her arms on the fence, her gaze locked on the facade of the house. "He did what he needed to in order to help his friend. They all did. And you know that Al's made his way out there more than once over the years, and so has Teddy. Uncle Harry too. I think it helps them to have something this personal. It lets them get in touch with everyone that we don't have anymore."

Helena sighed. "Do you ever wonder what it would have been like had Al's grandparents not died?"

Rose swallowed. "All the time, and I think Uncle Harry does too. He's found a family with Grandmum and Granddad, and I know that he loves Aunt Ginny and everything, but I think that there's always going to be a part of him that wishes that his parents were still around, and the same goes for Teddy. It's sort of difficult not to wonder."

They were silent for a few moments, the only sounds that of the wind, the leaves, and the noises drifting up from the village. After a while, Serena shook her head. "Well, we'll never know what it would be like if things had been different, much as we may wish otherwise. Anyway, for all we know, having just one person stay alive could have changed everything. Harry and Ron might never have become friends, Al might never have been born, Teddy and Vic might not have been best friends since they were little. There's a reason why you shouldn't go back and change the past. It can completely distort the future and make everything we know completely different. As sad as it is, we need to leave it be and let it go."

Rose's gaze stayed fixed on the house as she nodded. "I agree. I think that my family will always think about it, Teddy and Uncle Harry especially, but I think we also know that it's just a part of life and we need to keep moving past it." She shook her head a moment later. "Enough of this. It's depressing me. Shall we head back to the village?"

"Please," Helena said. "I need chocolate."

"Let's make a stop at Weasley's Wizard Wheezes first," Serena said. "I was instructed to buy Lorcan some Dungbombs, seeing as he's on a date." She made a face. "I really don't want to know what use they have planned for them."

Laughing, they walked back down the village. The wind picked up as they made their way to Weasley's Wizard Wheezes, and Rose sighed appreciatively once they were inside and the door shut, blocking out the cold air. She barely made it five steps inside the door when someone threw their arms around her, picked her up, and spun her around.

Laughing, she pounded him on the back. "Fred Weasley, you put me down this instant!"

Fred chuckled as he set her down. She stepped back to look at him. His dark hair had gotten longer, and it curled around his neck and his ears as he grinned at her. There was a ring in his eyebrow and another on the left side of his lower lip. A tattoo of a lion prowled along his forearm, and another tattoo, this one of the symbol of the Deathly Hallows, was visible thanks to the open collar of his shirt. "How's seventh year treating you, Rosie? Gotten into any trouble?"

She laughed and shook her head. "Unfortunately, or maybe it's fortunate, you're asking the wrong girl. Lil has gotten into a bit of trouble with Al, Scorpius, and Maddie, but I don't have any detentions to my name."

His grin widened. "I figured as much. You are Head Girl, after all." He slung his arm over her shoulders and led her towards the counter. "How has your position of authority been, anyway? Are you making full use of your Head privileges?"

"I'm trying to," she said. "I've had to come to a compromise with Scorpius, much to my dismay, but so it goes in matters of politics and diplomacy."

"And what compromise is this?" Fred asked.

She groaned. "I made him swear that he wouldn't bring any girls back to our dormitory because I don't think I could handle listening to that or waking up to one of them stumbling out of his dormitory in the morning, and in return, he made me swear that I would attempt to have some fun this year. Of course, my definition of fun is slightly different than his, so that's proving to complicate matters a bit."

"It sounds like he got the short end of the stick, Rosie," Fred said, slipping his arm off of her shoulders and boosting himself up so that he could sit on the edge of the counter. "Your end of the deal doesn't sound so bad at all."

"Maybe, if it weren't N.E.W.T. year," Rose said, sitting beside him. "I need to have good grades if I'm going to become a Healer, or if I happen to change my mind and elect to go into a different field." She shook her head a moment later. "Enough about me. I heard all about it from Scorpius and Serena this morning." A smile spread across her face. "How's Tara doing?"

Fred poked her side and grinned. "She's good. She finally got a promotion at the _Prophet_, so she isn't reserved to fetching and carrying for the more senior members. A couple more years and I think that she'll have her own column, but we'll see. I know that's the goal right now, and if all goes well, editor in the future, but we'll see."

"I'm glad things are going well for her," Rose said. "For that matter, I'm glad that you finally worked the guts up to ask her out. How long did you have a crush on her? It started in what, third year? And you asked her out last fall, so that makes it... Six years or so?" She laughed when she saw the traces of a blush on his cheeks. "Aw, don't be ashamed, Freddy. Some people just take time, that's all."

"I've known her since we were kids," Fred said. "It was weird."

Rose raised her eyebrows. "Hey, Teddy and Vic have known each other since they were kids too, and they made it work just fine."

"Yeah, but Teddy and Vic are also a special case as far as most things are concerned," Fred said. "And anyway, it's not like their parents were best friends growing up."

"No, but Grandmum wanted Uncle Bill to marry Tonks at the beginning of everything," Rose said. "If you ask me, that's weirder than having your parents be best friends."

Fred's shoulders slumped. "Shush, you're ruining my justification for why it took me so long. Don't damage my pride, Rosie, I don't think it can handle any more of that. I might not survive."

"I'd believe you, if it weren't for the fact that it's you and you've survived every other ridiculous thing that's happened to you," Rose said, elbowing him gently. "How have things been around here?"

He straightened, a smile immediately coming to his lips. "They've been great. Dad's finally letting me manage the store on my own, but he still pops in from time to time. He says that it's just to check up on how things are going, but I think it's also because he's hoping that he'll run into some of your lot who've snuck into Hogsmeade for a bit. Al's been down here with Scorpius once or twice. How's your dad dealing with that, anyway? Is he still annoyed about it?"

Rose shrugged. "Honestly, I don't really know. I don't think he'll ever be terribly fond of Scorpius, because there's just so much history there, but I think he knows that Scorp isn't his father and that Harry wouldn't let Al hang around him if he were a bad kid, so he's getting over it. Does he accept him? I think so. Will he ever like him? Merlin only knows."

Fred nodded. "Yeah, Scorpius has never struck me as a bad sort."

Rose laughed. "Oh, not a _bad_ sort, but certainly one with a few unsavory habits."

"Who has unsavory habits?"

Rose turned around. She let out a small scream, jumped down from the counter, and threw her arms around George, who laughed and hugged her back.

"Uncle George, what are you doing here?" she asked.

He smiled. "You know I always like to come to the shop on Hogsmeade days. I don't see any of you often enough otherwise. It's not so bad once you're out of school, because then you're at the Burrow for family dinners and all of that, but right now, I only get to see you if I make an effort, so I'm doing my best." When Rose smiled, his own grin widened. "Now, tell me who has unsavory habits."

She rolled her eyes. "It's not important."

"Scorpius Malfoy," Fred said. "We were just discussing him, since I mentioned that he sneaks down to the shop sometimes."

"Well, he and Al have to get their pranking supplies _somewhere_," George said. "I'd hardly call that an unsavory habit though. Nearly everyone from Hogwarts sneaks down here at some point or another during their time at school."

"I've never snuck down," Rose said.

"Well, Rosie, you haven't lived," Fred said. "I'll get Al and Scorpius to take care of it, don't you worry."

She grimaced. "That's what I was afraid of."

"Don't worry, you won't get into any trouble," Fred said. "If you do, I'll take the blame."

Her brow furrowed. "Fred, you're not at school anymore. Professor McGonagall can't exactly give you detention anymore, and I'll be punished for being complicit in the affair."

"We'll just blame it on Scorpius and Al then," Fred said. "Say they kidnapped you, which might actually end up being the truth. You'll get off scot-free because you can hardly be blamed for their decisions, they won't get as severe a punishment because Merlin knows they get up to enough already, and they'll get to add kidnapping to their list of pranks that they pulled whilst they were at Hogwarts. Everyone wins."

She sighed and shook her head. "I worry about the influence that you have on those two, Fred."

George laughed. "Rosie, if you're going to blame anyone for influence, blame me. I influenced Teddy, Teddy influenced Sam, those two influenced James, Fred, Roxy, and Tara, and those four influenced Al and Scorpius. The chain leads directly back to me."

She grinned. "I know, but I like to at least _pretend _that you're a mature adult. It doesn't work most of the time, but I don't want to make it any more difficult for myself than it already is, you know?"

"That's a battle you won't win," Fred said.

"I know," Rose said.

"There you are!"

Rose turned around to see Serena and Helena, both with an armful of items. "Sorry, Fred kidnapped me."

Serena set her armload down on the counter and smiled at Fred and George. "Hi, Fred. Hello, Mr. Weasley."

"Serena, you know you can call me George," George said. "It makes me feel old when you don't. Let me ring all of that up for you girls. Rosie, do you want anything?"

Rose shook her head. "I think there's going to be enough to last us through the next two Hogsmeade visits between those two and Scorpius."

"Where is Al, anyway?" Fred asked. "This is normally his first stop."

"He and Maddie elected to make this a date, seeing as it's our first trip out of the castle this year," Serena said. "I'm sure they'll be by at some point, but I was under strict instructions to buy some Dungbombs for Lorcan, so here I am." She grinned a moment later. "I just happened to pick up a few things for myself as well."

Rose rolled her eyes. "Yeah, cause that's definitely just a few things."

Serena shrugged. "I got a little carried away."

"You're lucky you have the family and friends discount," George said. "That'll be three Galleons and two Sickles."

Serena opened her bag and fished around inside of it for a moment. She deposited the coins into George's hand, and he handed her the bag of her purchases before moving on to Helena's pile.

"So, what's next for you lot?" Fred asked. "Where have you been so far?"

"We went to Scrivenshaft's first, and then the Shrieking Shack," Rose said. "We'll probably head off to Honeydukes next. Helena needs her chocolate."

Helena glanced over at them. "Yes. Yes I do."

"I can't say I disagree with that," Fred said. "Chocolate is a very wonderful thing."

"It most certainly is," Rose said.

"So Honeydukes, and then what?" Fred asked.

"Dunno," Rose said. "Probably the Three Broomsticks, but I'm not sure. We'll just have to see where the day takes us."

"Fair enough," Fred said. He dusted his hands off on his pants and jumped down from the counter. "Well, I'll let you get back to your trip now." He bowed. "It was absolutely splendid to see you, my fair lady."

Rose laughed and curtsied. "It was splendid to see you as well, my dear sir."

George shook his head. "This family is absolutely mad." He opened his arms and grinned a moment later. "One last hug for your uncle, Rosie?"

Rose walked into his waiting arms and hugged him. "You say we're mad, Uncle George, but you're the worst of us."

He released her and winked. "I don't doubt that. Have a nice day, girls."

They chorused their goodbyes and walked out of the shop, Rose pulling the collar of her coat up as they did.

"I love your uncle," Serena said once they were out in the street. "He's fantastic. Your whole family is, actually."

"I like to think so," Rose said. "Uncle George is right though, every last one of us is mad."

"In a particularly marvelous way, though," Helena said.

"I won't argue with that," Rose said. "Honeydukes?"

Helena nodded enthusiastically. "Honeydukes."

They made their way to the sweet shop. Rose inhaled appreciatively once they were inside, and picked up a few of her favorite sweets. She was leaning against the counter waiting for Serena and Helena to purchase the candy of their choice when someone said her name. She smiled when she saw who was walking towards her.

"Hi, Monica," she said. "Hey, Nick."

The blonde smiled, her eyes crinkling. "Hi there, Rose. Fancy running into you here."

"I could say the same to you," Rose said. "What are you two doing here?"

"We're having lunch with Molly, Sam, Chelsea, and Jack," Monica said. "We just misjudged the date. We thought your Hogsmeade trip was last weekend. The Three Broomsticks is going to be a mess."

Nick gave a half-smile. "She means it too. We were trying to plan around you lot, no offense."

Rose grinned. "None taken. I'd plan around us too if I were you. I'm the one who has to plan these bloody things, you could just write me and ask for a list of dates."

Monica made a face and laughed. "Foresight isn't my strong point. We'll be sure to do that next time."

"I await your owl," Rose said. "Merlin, I feel like I'm running into everyone today. First Fred and Uncle George, now the two of you, and quite possibly four others, by the sounds of things."

Nick shrugged. "It's a particularly convenient place for all of us to meet, and it's sort of nice to revisit some of our old haunts, you know?"

Rose nodded. "I understand." When Serena and Helena approached, she looked at them. "Ready?" They murmured their agreement, and Rose looked back at Monica and Nick. "Well, I think we're going to make our way over to the Three Broomsticks now, but it was lovely to see the two of you."

"Likewise," Monica said. "Tell everyone else that we say hello."

"I will," Rose said, smiling. "Bye!"

Flanked by Serena and Helena, Rose left Honeydukes and walked to the Three Broomsticks. They claimed a table and set their things down.

"I've got drinks this time," Helena said. Before either Serena or Rose could argue, she was off to the bar.

"Well, at least she's making her own decisions," Serena said. "So, what's up in the land of Fred Weasley?"

"Not a ton, as far as I can tell," Rose said. "I got to tease him about Tara a bit, which was lovely, but so far, the only news that he really has is that Uncle George is starting to let him manage the shop."

"That's good though," Serena said. "I suppose that means we'll be running into him a lot when we're in Hogsmeade."

"So it would appear," Rose said. "I love Fred though, so I can't say I'm complaining. Did you see Al and Maddie, Alice and Declan, or Lorcan and Lil at all while we were out?"

Serena shook her head. "I can't say I did while we were out, but Lorcan and Lil are in the corner back behind you, and I wouldn't look, because they seem to be particularly interested in each other's faces right now."

"My hormone-controlled cousins," Rose said, shaking her head. "I just can't seem to escape it, no matter what I do."

"What can't you escape?" Helena set down three bottles of butterbeer and took her seat.

Serena took a sip from one of the bottles. "Her overly-hormonal cousins, that's what."

"It doesn't exactly help that she's got a lot of them," Helena said.

"Normally I love having a large family, but in situations like this, it's proving to be a bit more of a burden than I'd like," Rose said, lifting her own bottle. "Oh well. This is the struggle of a Weasley." She took a sip of her butterbeer and sighed appreciatively. "There's nothing quite like Three Broomsticks butterbeer, if you ask me."

"I'll have to agree with you," Serena said. "It really hits the spot."

They were silent for a while, content to sip on their butterbeer and relax. Rose had nearly finished hers when a particularly ruffled Scorpius Malfoy approached the table, his blond hair windswept and his eyes darting. She raised her eyebrows as he came to a stop in front of her.

"Can I help you?"

He took a deep breath. "Rose, I ask you this seriously. How much do you love me?"

Her eyes widened. "I'm sorry?"

"You know Cynthia Fadden?" he asked.

"Sixth year Ravenclaw, strawberry blonde, quite cute according to the general male population of Hogwarts, why?" she asked, taking another sip of her butterbeer.

Scorpius fell into a chair beside her. "She's been following me all afternoon with those friends of hers, Jane and Marissa, and she won't leave me alone."

"And what am I supposed to do about this?" Rose asked. "I'm not about to go up to her and tell her that you're not interested. If that's what you want, you can handle it yourself."

Scorpius ran his hand through his hair. "You know I'm not exactly opposed to spending a bit of time with someone provided we're both getting something out of it." Rose made a face. "Yeah, I know, you disapprove. The thing about Cynthia Fadden is that I could never find her particularly attractive. She looks like my cousin Adrienne, and while Adrienne is a beautiful girl, she's beautiful in the family sense of the word, and that would just be weird."

"Point taken, but I still don't understand what I have to do with any of this," Rose said.

"Act like you're here with me," Scorpius said. "She'll be here any second and if she doesn't think that I'm here with somebody, I'm done for. I can only fend her off for so long."

Rose glanced at Serena and Helena. "Do you mind?"

Serena smirked. "Oh, not at all. I think we'll go for a wander around the village. Meet you back at the castle, Rose."

"Sure," Rose said. As Serena and Helena stood up, bottles of butterbeer in hand, she looked at Scorpius. "If this backfires and people think that I'm dating you, you won't be alive to see tomorrow morning."

"Heard and understood," Scorpius said. His eyes widened a moment later. "There she is. Pretend I said something funny."

Rose rolled her eyes. "I agreed to help you, not to lie. You're an idiot."

Scorpius's mouth dropped. "You abuse me."

"No, I tell you the truth," Rose said. "There's a difference, isn't there?"

He stuck out his lower lip in a pout. "I'm hurt, Red."

"You're not hurt, you're just being overly dramatic," Rose said. "Now, seeing as I'm doing you a favor, I want another butterbeer."

Scorpius gaped at her for a moment. When all she did was lift one eyebrow, he groaned. "Fine."

She sat back in her chair as he got up and walked away. No sooner was he out of earshot than a pretty girl with red-blonde hair sank into his chair. _"You're _here with Scorpius Malfoy?"

Rose finished off her butterbeer and smiled. "Hello, Cynthia. Merlin, no, I'm not on a date with him. We're discussing some important Head business, so if you wouldn't mind letting us take care of it, that would be much appreciated." When Cynthia didn't move, Rose's eyes narrowed. "As I said, Head business. I doubt the headmistress would be thrilled to hear that we were delayed."

"You're in Hogsmeade," Cynthia said as Scorpius came back. "Why would you be working on Head business?" She looked up and smiled at Scorpius, fluttering her eyelashes. "Hello, Scorpius."

Scorpius gave a half-smile as he sat down beside Rose. "We may be in Hogsmeade, Cynthia, but we never stop working. Right, Rose?"

"Exactly right, Scorp," Rose said. "This is a team effort."

Scorpius slung his arm around her shoulders. "It most certainly is." Cynthia looked at each of them for a moment, huffed, stood up, and walked away. As soon as the door shut, Scorpius slumped in his chair. "Rose, you are a lifesaver."

She reached for the butterbeer. "I do my best."

He stood up. "I'm going to head back to the castle. Enjoy your butterbeer, and I owe you a favor." He leaned down and kissed her cheek. "Thanks a million, Rose. See you."

She didn't have a chance to formulate a response before he smiled at her and left the pub. A confused expression on her face, she took a sip from the bottle and sighed. "I will never pretend to understand that boy."

* * *

**A/N:**

**Probably going to end up rewriting at least part of IYAIS for NaNo (hopefully I actually mean that this time) and also working on everything else that I've got on my list at the moment (this, an original fiction piece that I'm rewriting, the other fics that I'm working on and need to finish, etc.). I'll be reposting IYAIS when it's done, I think, and then I'll worry about rewriting IYFML. **

**Also, there are some typos in earlier chapters and I am aware of that and I will get around to fixing them once I get through the midterms that I have this week.**

**Peace and love x**


	6. Chapter 5

On a Tuesday afternoon in early October, Rose found herself in the library with Scorpius, Al, and Serena, each with their head bent over their respective textbooks and parchment. Rose was hurriedly scribbling down notes about Herbology as Al attempted to finish a Defense essay, Serena studied her Potions notes, and Scorpius wrote the last two inches of a piece of homework for Transfiguration.

Scorpius groaned and sat back in his seat, pinching the bridge of his nose as he did. "I can't do this. It's going to drive me absolutely mad. I need a break."

"Look at it this way, Scorpius," Rose said. "The sooner you finish with your work, the sooner you can stop working altogether and relax."

He glanced at her. "You have superhuman studying abilities, Red. The rest of us just aren't up to par with you. We don't have your powers of motivation, much as we might wish we did."

She laid her hand on his shoulder. "Scorp, if you finish this, I promise I won't wake you up for breakfast on Saturday and you can sleep in as long as you want, and I also won't complain about Quidditch getting in the way of Head duties for two weeks." When he sat up and opened his mouth, she shook her head. "No, I'm not going to make it for the rest of term, so don't even bother asking."

He slumped in his chair again. "Fine... I suppose that's a fairly decent offer. But you're coming down to the kitchens with me on Saturday whenever I wake up."

"So long as you don't wake up just in time for lunch, I'll do that," Rose said. "Now, finish your work. It won't kill you."

He sighed. "If I have to."

Al looked up from his essay. "Rose, have you finished this yet?"

Rose nodded. "Yeah, I finished it three days ago, why?"

"Did you finish the Potions homework?" Serena asked.

"Yeah," Rose said. "Last night, and yes, I finished my Transfiguration work two nights ago. Why do you ask?"

"Do you actually _need_ to do anything right now?" Al asked.

"Not really," Rose said. "I mean, I need to revise for Herbology, but I don't have any outstanding assignments at the moment, if that's what you're asking."

"Why are you here?" Serena asked. "You don't need to be. You could be off reading or something."

Rose shrugged. "I have an easier time getting work done when I'm surrounded by other people who are getting work done."

Al raised his eyebrows. "We're terrible at getting work done. Why did you pick us?"

"I'm related to you," Rose said. "I like Rena, and Scorpius is just an unfortunate part of the package." When the blond boy made a face at her, she grinned. "Only joking."

He rolled his eyes. "Yeah, I'm sure you are."

"Please don't be too civil in front of me," Al said. "It scares me."

"I'll bet it does," Rose said. "Aren't you supposed to be a Gryffindor?"

Al made a face at her as a grin spread across Serena's face. "Don't look now, Rose, but a certain dark-haired Ravenclaw is approaching the table as we speak."

Rose sighed. "You're never going to let me live this one down, are you?"

"Not a chance," Serena said as Guy came to a halt beside Rose.

Rose glanced up at him, smiling. "Hey, Guy. To what do I owe this pleasure?"

He smiled. "Hey, Rose. I was just wondering if you'd help me out with some Charms work. I've been fine up until now, but I'm struggling a bit with what we learned last lesson, and I know you're an ace when it comes to that class, and everything else, really, so I thought I'd ask."

"I'm not really doing anything right now, so sure," Rose said. She glanced at Al, Serena, and Scorpius. "You lot don't mind if I go, do you?"

Al shook his head. "Please, leave us lesser beings to our misery."

Serena grinned again. "Oh, not at all. I'll see you at dinner."

Rose looked at Scorpius. "Scorp?"

He shrugged, his gaze trained on his Transfiguration homework. "I'm not your keeper. If you want to go, then go ahead."

"Ooo-kay," she said. She looked at Guy again. "Well, I guess that's your answer. Just give me a second." He nodded, and she proceeded to collect her things and put them into her bag. When she was done, she smiled. "All right, let's go." As they wandered out of the library, she glanced at him. "Where shall we do this? I'd say the library, but I don't really know if that would be the best idea."

"There's plenty of empty classrooms," he said. "We can just use one of those."

"I see why they put you in Ravenclaw," Rose said, laughing.

He glanced at her, a small smile on his lips. "Yeah, I'll bet."

They wandered through the corridors until they stumbled onto an appropriately empty classroom. Rose dropped her bag on a bench and sat down on the edge of the teacher's desk with a sigh.

"Long day?" Guy asked.

She nodded. "Yeah. I had class all morning, and I was revising for Herbology, and to be perfectly honest, I'd be very happy to skip dinner and go straight to bed."

He walked over to her and sat on the desk as well. "If you're really tired, I don't want to make you help me."

"You asked, and I don't want to say no," Rose said. "As Head Girl, it's my duty to help out whenever I can."

"I'd rather you helped me because you wanted to, not because a title makes you feel like you have to," he said. "We can do something else, you know."

She watched him out of the corner of her eye. "Yeah?"

He nodded. "Yeah."

She stretched her arms out in front of her and then clasped her hands in her lap. "Like what?"

"Dunno." He shrugged. "We can wander down to the kitchens and grab a bite to eat, we can go for a stroll around the grounds, we can talk about our lives, we can get to know each other better... It's up to you."

She smiled. "Well, I think a bit of food and a stroll around the grounds sounds lovely. It might be just what I need to wake me up, and I promise that we'll deal with your Charms questions tomorrow."

"I look forward to it." He straightened and turned to smile at her, holding his hand out as he did. "Shall we?"

She put her hand in his and let him help her to her feet. "We shall."

Once they were in the kitchens, pasties in hand, he looked at her. "So it's tiring being a Head, then?"

She groaned. "Merlin, you have no idea. I mean, Scorpius and I are mates and all, but we live to annoy each other, so that makes things even more complicated than they already are, and there's always something that needs to be dealt with, whether it's the detention reports that the prefects fill out for us or whatever else. If I'm not in class or doing assignments, I'm probably taking care of Head business. I don't get anywhere near as much time to myself or to relax as I'd like, and I mean, I wanted this position, so I'm trying very hard not to complain, but it gets progressively more difficult. I need it to be the winter holidays so that I can sleep."

"I take it that means that making good on your promise to have a good time this year is rather difficult," he said.

"I'll say," she said. "I barely have enough time to eat and sleep, let alone have fun."

He stood up. "Well, consider this part of my promise that I'm going to help you enjoy yourself this year. Let's go for that walk."

She smiled. "That sounds great."

They wandered up to the Heads' dormitory so that Rose could drop off her bag, and then out of the castle and down towards the Quidditch pitch (Rose made a quiet statement that a walk around the Black Lake was terribly cliché). A gust of wind blew as the stands came into sight, and Rose shivered.

Guy glanced at her. "You all right?"

"Fine," she said, rubbing her arms. "I just didn't think to grab a coat before we left the castle."

He laughed. "I'd offer you mine, but as you can see, I don't have one, so..." He wrapped his arm around her shoulders and drew her against his side. "Better?"

She nodded, hiding a smile. "Much."

They walked in silence for a while, and when they began to make a circle around the pitch, he spoke. "So, your brother and Lily are the last of the Weasley clan to go through Hogwarts, huh?"

"They are, yeah," Rose said. "It's a bit odd for all of us, honestly. There's been at least one of us here for pretty much as long as I can remember. I was five when Vic started, and three when Teddy did, and he might not have been an official member of the family at that point, but he was pretty damn close, so I'm used to having someone else here."

Guy chuckled. "Not me, but then again, that's what happens when you're a Muggleborn."

"I thought your uncle worked for the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures," Rose said.

"Oh, he does, but he's Muggleborn too," Guy said. "There seems to be magical blood in every generation, because my great aunt was a witch, but Uncle Kevin's parents were both Muggles, as are mine, and so are my brothers and my sister."

"I can't help but wonder when they'll finally figure out how magic is passed down in families," Rose said. "I feel like it's such an interesting topic. I'm surprised there aren't more people working on it right now."

"I'm sure they'll sort it out eventually," Guy said. "I don't see why they wouldn't. It just isn't as pressing an issue as it once was, seeing as your family and family friends have done such a fantastic job of reorganizing the power structure ever since the war."

"I suppose so, yeah," Rose said. "They've done their best to sort everything out. I don't think anybody wants a repeat of what happened."

"I'd be inclined to agree with you," Guy said. "Their best is pretty great, if you ask me."

Rose nodded. "I'd have to say the same. They've tried very hard."

Guy laughed. "It shows."

"But anyway, back to the topic at hand," Rose said. "You have siblings?"

"I do," he said. "An older brother and sister, and a younger brother as well. Julius is twenty-two, Carly is nineteen, and Bevan is fifteen. I'm the only one of the lot with magic though, much to Bevan's displeasure."

"I'm sure it drives him absolutely mad that you can do your chores with magic now," Rose said, laughing. "I know it annoys Hugo, but then again, it might be worse, because he's got magic, he just can't use it at home yet."

"Oh, it drives Bev up the wall," Guy said. "He's been even more annoyed by it lately because Julius moved out two years ago and Carly and her best mate got a flat for uni, so neither of them are home to help him out and he's stuck doing everything while I'm gone. Half the time I do everything by hand just so that I don't wake up dead in the morning."

"Well, we couldn't have that, could we?" Rose asked.

He shook his head. "Definitely not."

She smiled. "I'd tell you about my family, but there isn't exactly anything that's a secret, so how about we just walk?"

"That sounds like a great idea," he said.

They wandered around the outside of the pitch for a while, and only stopped when Rose sighed. "We should probably head back up for dinner. I don't want Rena and the others to think I'm dead or anything."

"As if I would ever try to murder you." Guy squeezed her shoulders gently. "But I get your point."

When they reached the entrance hall, Rose smiled. "Thank you for this. I needed it."

He bowed slightly. "It's always a pleasure." He grinned when she laughed. "I like that I can make you do that."

He removed his arm from her shoulders when they entered the Great Hall, and she touched his shoulder gently. "I'll see you in Charms tomorrow, yeah?"

"Yeah," he said. "Please don't hit me for what I'm about to do." She barely had time to raise her eyebrows before he kissed her cheek and smiled. "See you tomorrow, Rose." He tucked his hands into his pockets and walked off to the Ravenclaw table, whistling the whole way.

She shook her head and walked along the Gryffindor table until she reached her friends. Serena grinned at her as she sat down. "So, Rose, anything interesting happen?"

Rose rolled her eyes. "Rena, I swear you're more invested in all of our love lives than you are in your academics."

"A girl needs some excitement in her life, and seeing as I don't have a relationship of my own to be invested in..." Serena trailed off. "Seriously, did anything interesting happen?"

Rose shrugged. "Not really. I told him that I was tired, so we ended up going down to the kitchens and then for a walk instead of working on Charms."

"Yeah, he definitely didn't need your help," Serena said.

"Why would he have asked, then?" Rose asked, helping herself to the potatoes.

Alice and Serena exchanged a look, and Alice shook her head. "Oh, Rose... You're so smart, and yet so incredibly stupid."

"What do you mean?" Rose asked.

"The boy likes you," Serena said.

"What makes you say that?" Rose asked. "He just needed my help, that's all, and we're mates, so I said yes."

"I did a bit of digging at Rena's request," Helena said. "Do you know who has the third-highest average in Charms right now?"

Rose tilted her head. "Who?"

Alice rolled her eyes. "Merlin, you're dense. That should have been a rhetorical question. Helena, please enlighten her."

"Got it," Helena said. She looked at Rose. "Highest is you, then that guy right there," she pointed at Scorpius, who sat one seat down and across the table from Rose, "and then Guy. Your average is only three-quarters of a percentage point higher than Scorpius's, and Scorpius is only two percentage points higher than Guy."

"So as you can see, he definitely didn't need your help," Alice said. "As Rena said, the boy likes you. Isn't that right, Scorpius?"

Scorpius paused in the middle of his conversation with Al and Lorcan to look over at them. "Sorry, what?"

"Guy definitely likes Rose, doesn't he?" Alice asked.

"Uh, sure," Scorpius said.

"Wow, you're a real help," Alice said. "Anyway, Rose, he was only asking you for help with Charms because he wanted to have an excuse to spend time with you. If you don't believe us now, just give it a couple weeks and see what happens. He's definitely interested in you."

Rose's brow furrowed. "How in Merlin's name did you figure out what our averages are, Hel? I don't even know my exact one."

"Well, it's a ninety-eight point four," Helena said. "As for how... I have my ways."

"I'm not sure if I should be amazed or scared," Rose said.

Helena shrugged. "Either's good."

Alice shook her head. "Merlin, Rose, did you completely miss what I said? Guy Whitby fancies you. I'm sure of it."

Rose flushed. "Sorry, Ali. Do you really think so?"

Serena cooed. "Aww, our little Rosie is going to have her first boyfriend. Somebody get me a camera. I need to document this moment."

Rose picked up a roll and threw it at Serena, all the while conscious of the heat in her cheeks. "Shut up, you."

Serena grinned and reached for the shepherd's pie. "I'm sorry that you can't handle the truth, dear."

"I'm sure you are," Rose said. She looked at Scorpius. "We need to take care of the detention reports after dinner."

He glanced at her. "Whatever you say, oh incredibly wise and talented Head Girl."

She raised her eyebrows. "Everything all right there, Scorp?"

"Yeah, fine," he said, going back to his food. "After dinner. Got it."

She watched him for a moment and then shook her head. "Okay then."

After dinner, she let Scorpius lead the way up to the common room. He walked with his hands tucked in his pockets, his mouth drawn. The entire way up, he didn't look in her direction once, instead keeping his gaze trained on the corridor in front of them. Once they entered the common room, she grabbed the stack of detention reports off of the table in the corner and passed half of them to Scorpius. He reached for one of the quills and the ink that sat on the table in front of the couch before beginning to read through the reports and initial the bottom corner to show that the detentions were read and approved.

After a few minutes of silence broken only by the sound of their quills scratching against the parchment, Rose looked at him. "You sure you're all right?"

"Positive," he said, his focus on the reports. "Why do you keep asking?"

"Normally you'd be cracking jokes or doing your best to make me lose focus right now," she said. "It's not like you to sit so quietly through this."

He shrugged. "I'm fine, Rose."

"And you called me Rose, which only happens when something bad happened or you need something from me," she said. "You're not doing a very good job of convincing me, Mister Malfoy."

"What do you want me to do, Rose?" he asked. "Chase you around the common room and threaten to get ink all over your clothes? I mean, I can do that if you'd like me to, but it doesn't seem like a particularly efficient use of our time."

"No, it doesn't," Rose said, looking back at the pile of parchment on her lap. "If you're sure..."

"I'm sure," he said. "Let's just get these reports done, okay?"

She glanced at him and then nodded. "Yeah."

When they were finished, he set his half of the reports in a stack on the table and stood up, loosening his tie as he did. "I'm heading out. Don't expect me back tonight."

"Oh," Rose said, setting her own stack of reports on top of his. "Okay then."

He nodded to her. "Don't wait up."

With that, he left the common room. She stayed there on the center of the couch for a while, staring at the seat he had vacated, and then shook her head, stood up, and went to take a shower.

Three days later, Scorpius still hadn't returned to normal. He spent very little time in the common room, and rumors had begun to float around about the girls he was spending time with. Rose did her best to ignore it, but not even a few study sessions with Guy were enough to take her mind off of Scorpius's odd behaviour (She wasn't about to admit that she'd been awake until three in the morning on Wednesday night waiting for him to come back to the dormitory. Definitely not).

Her last class of the day that Friday afternoon was Defense Against the Dark Arts, and she and Serena walked entered the room together, Alice and Helena not far behind. Rose was about to set her things down at her usual table when she glanced at the front of the room. Seeing who stood there, she froze.

Victoire grinned. "Hey there, Rosie."

Teddy winked. "How's it going?"

Rose set her bag on her chair and walked up to them. "What are you two doing here? Where's Professor Valance?"

Victoire's smile widened. "Just wait until everyone else gets here, and then you'll have an answer to both your questions. I'd put your bag by the wall, though. It's going to be a practical lesson today, so we'll be clearing all of the tables shortly."

Rose nodded slowly. "Okay then..."

Teddy clapped her on the shoulder. "It's all good, Rosie. You're going to have a good class today."

"I certainly hope so," Rose said. "I'm assuming practical lesson means wands out?"

"That it does," Victoire said. "By the way, Rosie, I'm spending the night so that I can see Lily. If you'd like to join us, you're welcome to."

Rose smiled. "That would be great. You two can come to the Heads' dormitory, if you'd like." Her smile faded. "Scorpius hasn't been around all that much, so we don't need to worry about disturbing him, I don't think. I'll tell him just to be sure, but it shouldn't be a problem."

Victoire tilted her head. "Is everything all right?"

Rose shrugged. "I mean, yeah." She began to play with the end of her braid. "I'll tell you and Lily tonight, how about that? She's going to want to hear all of it anyway."

Victoire inclined her head. "All right."

Teddy cleared his throat. "It looks like everybody's here, so..."

A small smile appeared on Rose's face. "I'll go back to my friends, Teddy, don't you worry."

His eyes widened. "I wasn't—"

Rose laughed. "I know. I'm only playing."

He tugged on her braid. "Go back to your friends, Rosie."

She stuck her tongue out at him and then went back over to Serena, who had been joined by Alice and Helena in the time that Rose had been gone. The tables flew to the walls as soon as Rose picked up her bag and slung it over her shoulder.

Serena raised her eyebrows. "What are they doing here?"

"Dunno," Rose said. "They said I'd find out when everyone else does, which should be any second since we're all here now."

Serena opened her mouth to respond, but wasn't given the chance. Teddy's voice rang out through the room. "If we could have your attention, please." The students turned to face the front of the room. Teddy stood with his wand hanging loosely in his hand, Victoire right next to him. His expression was serious as he looked around, but he winked at Rose as his gaze met hers. "I don't know most of you, but regardless, hello. My name is Teddy Lupin, and I'm currently a member of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. More specifically, a member of the Auror office. This is my partner, who is perfectly capable of introducing herself, so I'll let her do it."

Victoire nodded to the room. "I remember most of you, though most of you probably won't remember me. I was Head Girl when you were first-years. My name is Victoire Lupin, though all of you knew me as Victoire Weasley."

"You may refer to us as Auror Lupin and Auror Weasley for simplicity's sake," Teddy said. "You're probably wondering why we're here, and why the tables were cleared, and even if you weren't, I'm going to tell you anyway." Rose smiled at that, and he continued. "Professor Valance is currently at our training facilities terrifying—" He exhaled sharply when Victoire elbowed him in the side. "Sorry, _educating_ the trainees. As a result, Professor McGonagall asked Auror Weasley and myself to come and teach a class in her stead, so we're going to be having a bit of practical fun today. Would you care to tell them what we'll be doing, love?"

Victoire smiled. "It would be my pleasure." She looked around the room as she spoke, meeting the gazes of each and every student. "We're going to have a bit of dueling practice." When everybody began to whisper, she lifted her hand. The talking stopped, and her smile became mischievous. "This is going to be some good, old-fashioned dueling. Jinxes are legal, as are a few hexes, so I hope you've mastered the art of a Shield Charm. We'll pass out lists of the legal spells, and while you take a look at those, we're going to partner you up. We're not going to have you go pair by pair, as we'd like to believe that you're capable of controlling yourselves enough that you don't need constant supervision, but we will be wandering around the room watching you and offering advice. Please try not to send each other to the Hospital Wing."

Rose shot a glance at Scorpius, who had his arms crossed and a scowl on his face. She looked at Serena. "Fat chance."

"Please don't kill him," Serena muttered. "We need both of our Heads fully functional."

"No promises," Rose whispered.

A moment later, a piece of paper floated into the space in front of her. She took it as the girls took theirs, and after a few moments, Alice chuckled. "Rose, you'll have fun with this."

"What makes you say—oh," Rose said. A smile spread across her face. "Yeah, I definitely will."

It wasn't long before Victoire began to announce the partners. Rose didn't pay much attention until she heard Scorpius's name, followed by her own.

Fifteen minutes later, they were engaged in a heated duel. Despite the fact that their list of spells was rather limited, the two outstripped the majority of the class in terms of both their speed and their abilities. Both could cast a silent Shield Charm, as well as various nonverbal jinxes, and it kept the duel fast-paced and furious.

"Rictumsempra!" Scorpius said.

Rose threw up a shield. Scorpius's jinx deflected off of it. She lifted her wand. "Avis! Oppugno!"

A flock of finches appeared and flew at Scorpius. With a wave of his wand, he transfigured them into chess pieces, and they clattered to the floor. He was in the middle of casting his next spell when Rose silently cast one spell that nearly everyone knew to fear from the girls of the Weasley-Potter clan. A group of winged bogeys flew at him and overtook him, and it wasn't until he threw his wand to the ground that Rose waved her wand and vanished them.

"Well fought, Rose," Teddy said. "I see that Ginny got to you too."

Rose grinned. "I think she got to all of us, Ted—Auror Lupin."

Teddy rolled his eyes. "You only have to call me that if someone's paying attention." He glanced at Scorpius, who approached them. "Not bad, Scorpius. Just a little faster and a bit more anticipation and you'll be able to at least last against Rose, if not beat her. You want to be an Auror, right?"

Rose left them to their conversation and made her way over to where her bag sat against the wall. She was rummaging inside of it when she heard somebody cough behind her. When she stood up and turned around, Victoire was standing there, her hands on her hips.

"If I'm not mistaken, that wasn't just a duel between friends," Victoire said.

Rose groaned. "He's been acting like a prat for the last few days and I've got absolutely no idea why. Seeing as he won't talk to me, I was hoping that knocking him around a bit would at least make him angry enough that he'd at least say something to me, even if it's just yelling at me, but clearly my plan didn't succeed."

Victoire nodded. "I see." She ran her fingers through her hair. "I should probably get back to my official duty here, but we'll talk more about it tonight, all right?"

"I have a feeling you wouldn't let me get away with not talking about it," Rose said.

Victoire laughed. "Yeah, that's probably true."

Before Victoire and Teddy dismissed the class, Rose went up to Scorpius, who was leaning up against the wall beside the door. He met her gaze as she approached, his face expressionless. "Can I help you?"

She swallowed. "Uh, Vic is staying tonight because she wants to visit with me and Lily, so I was thinking we could have a girls' night in our dormitory, so I was hoping you could stay in Gryffindor Tower or something, if that's all right."

Scorpius straightened and adjusted the position of the strap that went across his shoulder. His tone was even, if not cool, when he spoke. "Don't worry, Rose, I have an outstanding appointment tonight. You won't see me."

Rose bit her lip. "Well, that's, uh, good, I guess?"

"I'm glad you think so," he said. "Is there anything else?"

Rose shook her head. "Uh, no."

"You'll have to excuse me, then," Scorpius said.

He walked over to Al and Lorcan, the former clapping him on the shoulder. Rose reached up to tuck a loose strand of hair behind her ear, her lower lip caught between her teeth.

That night found her sitting on one of the couches of the Heads' common room, her legs beneath a blanket. Victoire sat at the other end of the couch, and Lily was sitting on the floor, her back resting against the couch's base.

Victoire took a sip from her mug of hot chocolate and set it on the table. "So what's this about Scorpius acting like a prat?"

Lily looked up. "Scorpius is acting like a prat? I mean, I know he's generally prat-like, but I'm assuming you mean more than usual."

Rose shrugged and then pulled the blanket up. "He's just been acting odd since Tuesday, and I don't have any idea why."

"Well, did anything happen on Tuesday that might have set him off?" Victoire asked.

Rose made a face. "Not that I can think of, honestly. I didn't talk to him too much. He was fine, and then suddenly, he wasn't. He was being extremely polite if not a bit cold while we were doing the detention reports, and I don't know how many of our interactions you've witnessed, Vic, but that's not normal for him at all."

Lily laughed softly. "I'd say not normal is an understatement. You two drive each other mad on purpose. It's your friendship."

"Exactly," Rose said. "Anyway, he hasn't been speaking to me much at all, and when he does, he's oddly polite about it." She shook her head a moment later. "Let's not talk about me and my ridiculous fellow Head. What's going on with you, Vic? How's married life treating you?"

Victoire smiled and lifted her mug of hot chocolate again. "It's fantastic."

"So we don't need to kick Teddy's ass then?" Lily asked.

Victoire took a sip from her hot chocolate and chuckled. "No, you don't need to kick Teddy's ass. Everything's really the same as it was, honestly. We've been together for so long now that all of it just comes naturally at this point. We know each other's habits and everything, so we've got a pretty good routine established."

"Any thoughts about kids?" Lily asked, grinning.

Victoire made a sputtering sound and swallowed. "Merlin, Lily. Yeah, we've talked about it, but we're not ready for anything yet."

"I want to be able to spoil lots of little Lupins," Lily asked.

"You'll get to eventually," Victoire said. "We want a few years to ourselves first. There's some traveling we want to do, and we'd need a house instead of a flat." A smirk spread across her face. "Besides, we'd be limited in certain _activities _once we have children, so we're not quite ready for that yet."

It was Lily's turn to choke on her hot chocolate. Once she had caught her breath, she swore. "Merlin, Vic, he's like my brother. I don't need to hear that."

Victoire shrugged and lifted her mug to her lips. "Don't ask pointed questions and you won't get pointed answers."

Rose laughed. "You sort of brought that one on yourself, Lil. Besides, Al is one of Lorcan's best mates. How do you think he feels having to listen to Lorcan talk about what he gets up to with you?"

Lily shuddered. "I don't even want to think about it."

"That's probably wise," Victoire said. "It gets to be a bit too uncomfortable if you do."

"I'll say," Lily said.

They spent the night talking and laughing, and it took Rose's mind off of Scorpius—at least, it took her mind off of him long enough to let her relax and have a bit of fun with her oldest and youngest cousins.


End file.
